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 Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:01 am
 Thanos had found the night long while watching over Regret. The mare certainly did need her sleep he thought. He found himself...bored perhaps and a bit impatient while just standing there. And what was worse in all that time of standing still not a single memory came to him, so clearly the idea that memories would catch up to you if you stood still for too long was full of bull. There were a few times in the night when he considered just leaving her and returning to his herd. After all, he did bring her to the herd lands and even the stupidest of horses should be able to find the herd at that point. But then when he began to walk away he found he just couldn't do it. This bothered him more than the lack of memories coming back. What had this mare done to him to make his so unwilling to abandon her. He abandoned his herd nearly every day now and they didn't seem to mind. Well even if they did their opinion didn't matter to him. They were his underlings after all, they weren't there to think, they were there to do. And well, they did a whole lot of nothing since coming back from Hell.
At one point he even laid down beside her. Although he wasn't tired or in need of sleep. He told himself that he only did it because he was bored with standing and not because the mare was clearly shivering in the cold. His rats had had a hay day when he did that, well at least War did. Peace thought it was so nice of him to do so, typical Peace. When the sun came up Thanos found himself once again standing near the mare, his head lowered a bit watching her. Now was the time to move, he thought, for if they waiting too long they would not reach the herd until the next day. But how did one wake up a sleeping horse?"Kick her!" War cried out as if answering Thanos' thoughts. "No don't do that. You must be gentle or you will hurt her.""I'm not going to kick her." He snapped at War. Now if this was one of his herd members he most certainly would, but not this mare. He didn't know why, he just couldn't do it. Not like it would take much to kill her. No, bad thought. Well...he suppose if he...pushed on her....but not hard...it could wake her up. So he bent his head down lower and pushed against her shoulder with his bony nose. "Regret, wake up."
His eyes moved from her to a pile of leaves, grass and one old dried up apple he had gathered during the night. Or at least he assumed he gathered them. After all Regret had been asleep the whole time, his rats wouldn't have left him to do such a crazy thing and no other horse came across them so it had to have been his doing. Maybe that would encourage her to eat. If not, well then they would leave that behind for some other starving, pathetic creature to stumble upon.
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:47 am
Regrets night had gone smoothly, or at least she couldn't recall waking up to terrible dreams which was always something to celebrate. It must have been the long trek to the trees that had done her in so well, just more proof to her theory that keeping moving was a good thing. She'd slept like a rock. Speaking of rocks...it felt like one was pushing against her shoulder, a sensation which brought the mare from her half asleep to fully awake in only a few moments.
Flinging her head up, eyes blinking as they worked to both adjust to the sudden light and clear the mornings gunk from them she snorted slightly, wondering briefly what had woken her. Early in her travels the mare had woken every morning in confusion, wondering just where she was, but that had been when she was new to being alone and traveling anywhere but the old lands. This morning confusion had slowly abated however - it was hard to be startled when nothing remained the same from day to day to get used to, the effects she assumed of near constant traveling. Such thoughts, however, did nothing to explain what had woken her this particular morning, something cold and hard had nudged her, her mind had at first thought it was a rock...but upon waking it was apparent that was not the case.How very peculiar.
It was about this time that her eyes fell upon Thanos, who was still looking down at her, the stark white of his bone nose glared brightly in the morning light and was a sharp contrast to the rest of his onyx face. Bone. Thanos had woken her she deduced suddenly and her ears flicked as she tried to decide just what she thought about that. Most mares would probably take issue with being nudged by bone, but Regret found she didn't mind though she couldn't define just why this fact didn't bother her.
"I'm awake" she told him matter of factly, despite the fact he could obviously see this for himself and after a few moments of rearrangement threw her front legs out so that she could pull herself to her feet. This was a feat best done quickly she'd learned.. better to just get it over with with one quick lunge then stand there groaning and moaning and slowly rising. And so with a swift lunge she gained her feet, grass and leaves were stuck to her mane and tail - if anything making her look even worse then she had the day before but Regret didn't care and so didn't bother to shake them loose. They'd fall out on their own during the days travels.
It was only then that she noticed the pile of gathered..well food by the looks of it. Had Thano's gathered it? He must have...she certainly hadn't. Unless she had started sleep walking now which honestly wouldn't surprise her - but that wouldn't explain why she'd returned to wake up in the same place she'd gone to sleep. "Did you gather this?" She asked him after a few moments of silence. She honestly hadn't expected the stallion to still be here in the morning - hadn't he said he no longer needed to sleep? "Did you stay here all night?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:52 am
Taking a step back to give Regret room to get to her feet, Thanos was surprised at how quickly and relatively effortless she did so. "I see that." He responded to her telling him she was awake. His eyes moved from Regret to the pile of food and then back at the mare. "Yes, I think I did." His head bobbed a bit. If someone else had gathered the food well he didn't know who it was or why for that matter. It certainly wasn't the healthiest looking of food, but what did one expect so late in the season.
"I was here all night." He told her somewhat plainly. Should he mention that he had intended to wander off several times? No, probably not. She didn't ask if he had left, only if he had stayed. And he had...for the most part. Obviously he had wandered a bit to gather the food. "You should uh...eat."
"She really is quite skinny." Peace said quietly. "I do hope she can eat enough before the snow sets in."
"We are wasting our time with her." Was snapped.
Although Thanos couldn't quite remember what snow was he was sure that Peace wouldn't lie about something and tell him food would be harder to find once it arrived. "Snow?" He asked quietly. "It will hide the food?"
"Yes, once it begins to fall it will be harder to find things to eat."
Hmm that could complicate things. Not for him of course. But for some of the other members of his herd...and Regret as well. How would one find food when it was hidden under this so called snow. Well he would ask about that later. Right now he had other things to think about. They still needed to make it to the herd, although a stop at the stream was probably in order as well.
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:55 am
He thought he did? what a strange way to answer her question, but then there wasn't much about Thanos that could be considered normal so Regret decided to overlook the statement. Questioning him about it would probably prove pointless in any case. He must have done it to pass the time Regret thought to herself, she couldn't quite come up with any other reason why the stallion would take the time to do something like that, it must have been pretty boring spending the entire night standing round if it was indeed true that he no longer felt the need to sleep..or eat..or drink as far as she had observed.
She supposed she ought to thank him..or something, for the thought if nothing else. But why? she stubbornly told herself, did she care if she was 'polite' to this beast? No..that would be absurd, she wasn't supposed to care about such things anymore! She told herself firmly, blatantly ignoring the part of her mind that told her she should do so anyways, she shushed it with the inner argument that Thanos probably wouldn't remember if she'd thanked him or not. It didn't seem like he had much of a memory about anything - short term or long term.
He would just have to settle for her eating she supposed, there was no reason not to eat food already gathered for her, it wasn't like she would have to take the time to stop and look about for it now was it? Besides there was an apple in the pile - and she recalled vaguely that she had used to enjoy apples, even if this one was a bit wizened and wrinkled looking. "Yes I suppose so" She replied to Thanos as he urged her to eat, though it felt a bit awkward to be doing so while another just stood around. Oh well. Bending her head down he ate the apple first..and then took a few bites of the grass.Aside from the apple, it was dry and tasteless for the most part but Regret didn't complain, mostly because she didn't care.
"How much farther is your herd?" she asked after a few moments - more to break the silence then anything else - though Thanos seemed to be conversing quietly with his rodent pets and she wasn't sure if her heard her or not. Didn't really matter she thought to herself as she finished the grass and scented the air. Was that water she smelled? yes..she thought so and her throat was a bit scratchy from the grass and the night so she started shuffling off in the direction of the stream.
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:37 am
Thanos looked up from his conversation with Peace to see the pile of food gone as well as Regret. Well where did she go? He spent all night here while she slept and she didn't even wait around for him once he woke her? Females. He snorted and turned to head back to his herd when he caught sight of a slow moving horse, his ears twitched, it was Regret. But where was she going. He followed her as she made her way to the stream. Once they reached the stream banks they came to a stop. Thanos figured she would be thirsty after all that dry grass but had been distracted by talking with the rats to have mentioned it to her.
"The herd shouldn't be too far off now, unless they have moved." He told her as he scanned the horizon. Although he doubted they would have gone far, they didn't do much right now but fill their bellies with grass and talk about having families. "Should be there no later than midday."
"They should have moved by now, towards the other herds to wipe them from this land!"
"Yeah I'm sure they are doing that right now."Peace said as he rolled his eyes.
"Even if they did move, they wouldn't have gone far. They are far too lazy for that." He replied to the rats. "The sooner we get them going the better." He stared out towards the mountain, smelling the air for any hints of his herd. Well he could smell horses, and he thought those would be his herd. After all few other horses seemed to roam towards the mountain. It's like they were scared to go near the mountain. How silly was that? What could possibly be scary about a mountain?
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:57 am
Regret's ear swiveled as Thano's caught up with her, he must have finished whatever conversation he was having with the rats she thought to herself as he followed her towards the stream. She had been sure the stallion hadn't heard her hen she asked how far away his herd was - but it seemed she might have been mistaken as he proceeded to answer her while she dipped her muzzle into the cool water. Or maybe that was just the most logical thing to say. for some reason that seemed like the more likely answer and when she raised her muzzle, water drop falling from it back into the pond she eyed the direction he was gazing in.
She could see absolutely nothing on the horizon that might be a horse. Of course she wasn't really expecting to, surely if they were close enough to see then he wouldn't predict midday as their time of arrival.Then again she did move rather slowly now. "I have ever liked lazy horses" Regret stated, though it seemed he wasn't talking to her. The statement might seem odd coming from a mare of the state she was in - but Regret's problems had never stemmed from being lazy, quite the contrary she could probably benefit from a good while of being exactly that.
Since she was finished with the water Regret backed away from the banks and eyed the decayed stallion for a few moments "I suppose we better get going" she told him expectantly, clearly waiting for him to once more choose the direction they would travel. It was his land after all - Regret had no idea which way his herd might have traveled.
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:54 pm
"Yes, I suppose we should." He said as he began to walk around the pond at the same slow pace that he used yesterday. Better not dilly dally around today, he did want to get back and see if those lazy horses were ready to do something. Perhaps Thorn has whipped them into shape while I was gone, he thought. It would be almost...nice to come back to a herd of active and motivated horses for once. Then they could continue on with their plans...whatever those were. That somehow reminded him that standing still had not brought his memories back so perhaps going back to walking would do just that.
"You could just leave her behind you know. We have things to do, things that are being slowed down by her."
"I don't think you can blame her for the lack of herd activity."
"She is not to blame." He told the rats as they walked on. "Something happened to them to make them stupid." At least that was the best excuse he could come up with for why a horse in Hell was so eager to join a herd bend on destruction and chaos and then change their mind once they returned to life. "Wasting my time they are." He grumbled quietly as he walked on. It's not like he could force all the horses out of this area on his own. Or could he? Well it would take a lot of effort, but he supposed it would be possible.
He caught movement beside him and turned his head to see what it was. Oh yes the mare he was leading to his herd. Damn, why was he doing this again? It didn't matter did it? He shrugged to himself then decided he better start talking to her again before this trip ended up being agonizingly long. "So have you ran into many horses lately?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 11:55 am
Regret followed along as the stallion once more took lead, she wondered briefly, and not for the first time, if he really had any idea where he was going - he did seem to loose track of his thoughts on a fairly regular basis after all. Of course it's not like you have anywhere else to be she reminded herself and certainly a horse from hell made suitable company for once such as herself. Which made the mare recall just why she had agreed to follow this beast in the first place..to find this so called portal and see if it was possible to go through it. Such a trip would end much of her troubles as far as she was concerned, she deserved to be in hell for her pas deeds and she would no longer have to worry about Asher and the others finding her, well until they died and went to hell themselves. There was little doubt in Regrets mind that that was the place they would all end up. Murders and the like didn't go to heaven.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts before they could go any further - this type of thought pattern always led her further into depression and brought memories to the surface she didn't wish to face. To occupy her mind before it got the chance to travel again she turned her focus to Thano's. The black beast seemed to be speaking to himself again - or maybe the rats, it was hard to tell sometimes. In any case the conversation didn't seem to involve her so she kept silent while he rambled, shuffling along beside him with half closed eyes in that mindless way she had adopted over the years. Thunk..thunk...thunk her hooves beat an endless pattern and the ground flowed by beneath her in a constant smoothly flowing wave. It was almost soothing, if it was possible to sleep and walk at the same time Regret thought she might never stop moving.
She wasn't sure what brought her attention to the fact that Thanos was speaking to her rather then himself, perhaps it had been a change in his tone, it didn't really matter now did it? she told herself the important thing was that she had heard him. "No" She told him after a few moments thought - though she didn't bother to raise her head and look at him like a polite horse would. Thano's probably didn't care anyways. "I mostly avoid them...or they me, probably think I'm diseased" she added in an off hand manner and something in her tone made one think the mare found this slightly amusing.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 8:05 pm
"I think if either of us were diseased it would be me." He said idly as they continued to walk along. Although he really had no idea what it meant to be diseased. Just another thing to relearn. It was gonna take a long time to remember all these things or at least relearn them. He once again fell into that awkward silence as they moved along. It's not that he didn't want to talk to her. But his jumbled thoughts were even worse off today and as such it made it hard to think of things to say that weren't just broken sentences that wouldn't make any sense, even to him.
Finally after a long time. It could have seen several minutes or more, he wasn't sure he found something to talk about. They came out of the bank of trees that lay not far from the base of the mountain. "There's the mountain." He said, even though that fact would be quite obvious to the mare. "Not far to go now. They should be on the far side." Well at least that's where he thought they could be. Was that where he had left them?
"Ah yes, the mountain. Thanks for pointing that out to her big man. She would have never seen that otherwise." War told him sarcastically.
"Be nice. He's trying his best."
Thanos bobbed his head in agreement with Peace. He was doing his best. What else could be said? How nice the day was? Well it wasn't. It was cold and sort of windy. He could only imagine this was the precursor to that Winter thing the rats had talked about the other day. Or maybe it was just a bad weather day. Either way, he couldn't talk about something as silly as the weather. Regret wouldn't care to talk of such things would she? Well if he asked her about it he may look like an idiot talking about the topic, but she might be one of those horses that enjoyed talking about such things.
Of course so far Regret didn't seem to show much interest in anything. Not that he could blame her. He didn't care about much either. Or at least he tried not to mainly because it added to the number of things he would need to think about later. And he had enough to worry about thinking wise already to not have to add more to that plate.
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 8:30 am
Well he did have a point Regret thought wryly as her gaze ticked to the undead beast, next to him she looked positively healthy - or maybe they were the poster horses for what life eventually did to everyone given enough time. It beat you down, year by year, little by little until well...look at the two of them. He had already died once and she well..she snorted suddenly, giving a small shake of her head. No point in running down that pathway she told herself. There didn't seem to be much point in responding to the stallions comment either - Regret doubted that the beast would care one way or another and what would she say? Your right you do look like hell? Well there was an interesting choice of words to think of and her tail snapped slightly in a small token of that inner amusement.
The silence as they walked along at the sedate gait that was becoming their normal pace didn't bother Regret, she had become accustomed to traveling in silence - she couldn't quite remember but she was fairly certain she'd gone days without speaking a single word since...Her eyes flickered slightly as the ghostly images of her past came streaming forth, bared teeth and flashing hooves, shrieking calls as they thundered along behind her, a blood bay stallion cheering them on and her..her in the lead, her wicked eyes and nasty shrewed face. The upsurper.
A shadow flickered past in the corner of her eye and Regret started, shaken from her memories as she spooked sideways into Thano's, eyes wide, nostrils flaring and sides heaving as she tried to find the source. They were coming!...but no she realized a second later as the shape darted past again fixing her a look with one beady little eye. The raven. Damn the beast. Blowing slightly Regret corrected herself - so that she was no longer stumbling into Thanos and continued on her previous path.
Foolish! she told herself - foolish, foolish mare! Letting yourself get so deeply into thought, giving yourself a flashback when it had been so long since you've had one. They'd come often in the beginning but she'd learned to keep them at bay, she'd created rules and limits and guidelines to keep them away and here she'd foolishly crossed them, and a bird...a damned annoying bird had been the one to shake her loose. Regret was angry with herself and because he was the only creature around to take it out on she snapped at Thanos "Yes I can see its a damned mountain!" she told the stallion, it was a giant frigging stone bigger then well..anything and everything really sticking in the moon cursed dirt..how could she miss it? Her anger was misdirected she knew but well...thats the way things went sometimes.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:27 pm
Regret's sudden jump and bump into his side caught Thanos off guard. And though he didn't lose his footing or sidestep at the sudden event he did wonder what had happened. That was the first time since meeting her that he saw Regret move at more than a slow shambled. He really hadn't expected for the mare to do anything else but walk along slowly. His eye caught the shadow as it moved along the ground near the horses. As he glanced up he caught sight of the raven as it flew above. Was that what had caused the mare to jump? Seemed odd if it did. After all had she not told him before that it had been following her for some time now. Shouldn't she be used to it's shadow?
"Well at least we know she can move fast if needed." Peace said. He did worry about the mare a bit.
"I highly doubt she would run away from anything....which is great! Because then she will not run away from her death!"
When Regret snapped at him for pointing out the mountain he really hadn't expected that either. But he ignored it as it was pretty stupid of him to point out such an obvious landmark to her. Regret may be a little slow but she certainly wasn't stupid. Then he heard it, the faint sound of horses, most likely his herd. "They are just up ahead." She had probably heard it too but he didn't care. "I should go ahead and let them know that you are coming to the herd. You can have a look around here and I will come and get you when the herd is informed."
By now they were practically at the base of the mountain. He came to a stop for a moment and looked at Regret. "If any of them come by to pester you just tell them you are here by my invitation." With that he began to walk off leaving her to look around or graze or rest or whatever she wished to do in his absence. Turning his head slightly as he walked away he called out to her. "I will return shortly." Then he quickened his pace into a fast trot as he went to look for his herd.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:49 am
Regret felt bad shortly after she snapped at the stallion, wait did she? She wasn't supposed to, she wasn't supposed to care about what other's thought anymore - she especially wasn't supposed to care about what a stallion thought. Well she certainly wasn't going to apologize she told herself firmly, snapping her tail to accentuate her mental point. In any case it didn't seem Thanos was all that bothered by her remark anyways - for all she knew he'd already forgotten it. Not her problem she reminded herself,though she did throw a glare up at the raven who stared balefully back at her from the branch of a nearby tree. Stupid bird.Making her look like a nitwit.
These pointless inner thoughts were brought to halt however when Thanos spoke suddenly. Straight up ahead? She lifted her gaze from the ground to look - well yes now that she was paying attention they had traveled a goodly distance and the sounds up ahead did sound like other horses. She stopped as Thanos said he wished to inform the herd of her arrival before he brought her to them, hadn't he said they didn't like outsiders? She vaguely recalled him saying that at some point and if that was indeed the case well then it seemed like a good idea for him to forewarn them rather then just arriving with something akin to 'hey look what I found!'. Not that she thought anyone would argue with him if he did do that - he hadn't expressedly asked Thanos what his position in the herd was, but she pegged him as someone of importance despite his feeble memory.
Regret stared at him blankly as he told her he'd be back soon and walked off, did he expect her to say good-bye? According to him he'd only be gone for a short while - and really it seemed pretty pointless to say goodbye and then greet each other again only a short time later. If he remembered to come back for her anyways.
Well yes that was somewhat of a worry. Wasn't it? Maybe not...if he didn't come back then she'd just continue on with what she'd been doing before. No skin off her nose, and yet...no regret shook her head, she wouldn't start hoping or worrying about things like that. Not again. Letting out a small huff as the stallion disappeared Regret let her gaze travel slowly throughout the area, her gaze floating across the Raven. "Still here I see" She grumped at the bird ho merely tipped its head as thought listening "Whatever" she told it before shambling off towards what looked like a sheltered area in the mountains base, barely registering the fact that the bird followed her.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:17 am
Thanos hurried along to find his herd before his memories failed him again, because he knew if that happened he would completely forget about Regret. His hooves carried his quickly in the direct of the herd, though they were still a bit of a run away their sounds were louder now indicating that he was closer than he was before. It didn't take long before he saw the first horse. One with a palamino hide and ropes around it. Yes this was one of his, he thought. "What is that ones name?" He asked his rats.
Peace moved up top the stallions head to get a better look. "He is Rowan."
"Where is Thorn?" War asked. Sometimes it would seem she liked Thorn more than Thanos.
"He is likely with the others." Thanos told the female rat as he continued to make his way to the other stallion he had spotted. Rowan. He told himself that name over and over again as he moved. He was close enough now to call out to him. "Rowan!"
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:21 am
Rowan had been wandering around the farthest edges of where the herd currently stayed when he heard someone call out his name. He turned to see the black stallion trotting towards him. It was Thanos, one of the herds leaders. He was impressed that the stallion had remembered his name. Turning he slowly trotted towards his leader, coming to a stop once he was close enough that they could talk without yelling.
"Thanos." He said with a respectful incline of his head. The older black stallion may not have a good memory but that was no reason to not show him respect. After all Rowan was completely loyal to his leaders, he would do nothing to anger them unless it was out of pure accident. His eyes moved to the rats for just a moment. He never did understand why Thanos allowed them to crawl all over him, but if Thanos didn't complain about them then there was no reason to ask about them.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:53 am
Regret hadn't remained stationary when Thanos left to find his herd mates. While many mares might have spared a thought towards what these other herd members might be like Regret found herself not really caring, it was impossible to think they could be stranger then Thanos himself, what with his decaying body and rat companions. Regrets attention was turned instead towards what she had first thought merely a clearing at the mountains base - but which upon further inspection she discovered to be the beaten pathway towards a cave entrance.
It as possible that this was merely a shelter used by the herd members during bad weather, but Regret didn't think so - if they were anything like Thanos then they wouldn't care about the weather, be it rain,wind,snow or sleet. As she drew closer the mare took note of the accumulated hoof prints packed into the soil outside the cave. May horses had been here at one time, gathered in groups and standing about for a goodly amount of time before being led off by what she could determine. But the tracks were old - if this was a weather shelter it hadn't been used in quite some time. The dappled mare had little trouble making these observations - she had once been a good tracker and even though she hadn't used the skills in a long time now..not since..well..she wasn't going to travel down that road, suffice to say she hadn't forgotten how to decipher them.
Giving a small snort Regret headed into the cave, pausing for a moment when the raven let out an angry series of squawks, pausing to give it an irritated look Regret continued on her way. Like she was going to take the advice of a bird who probably just wanted to eat her. The first thing Regret noticed was the cave's temperature...it seemed how at first, but as she stayed there longer a chill began to form within her bones. How very strange - could this possibly be the place Thano's had talked about? the portal to hell?
Eagerly the mare followed the hoof prints imbeded on the dirt floor father into the cave.
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