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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

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Huh, looking back on a whim.
yrsillar said:
"Tomb Masking Vines," Ling Qi blinked at the sound of a gruff voice drew her back to the box. Diao Luwen's eyes had cleared and he was peering down below.

"What do you refer to Father?" Cai Renxiang asked.

"What that boy's cultivation is based on. Nasty pest you need to account for in building west. They grow up around trees and structures, people too if allowed, kill and devour them, leave a hollow shell that looks like the victim behind. Damned mimics. What an irritating child," Diao Luwen spoke in a swift and clipped tone. "I had hoped this business would be short."
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Luwen refers to the buildings as victims as much as the trees and people.
But his attention didn't stick for long after that bit of detail.

Dude might legit have more interest in architecture than people.

Missed that in the midst of Guangli kicking ass

yrsillar said:
"That conclusion is not wrong," Diao Linqin replied, the roses swarmed close, curling around her, examining. "But it is incomplete, you risk giving too much of yourself as you are. Let me show you why you should control your empathy."

Ling Qi felt a prickling in her mind, then a rush of worry and calculation. Renxiang beside her, thoughts racing, an aching pain in her thoughts warring with relief and trepidation. For all her poise, Ling Qi's friend was a mess behind her mask of stoicism, Ling Qi almost reflexively reached for her.

She felt her other friends. Meizhen's calculation, her concern, her pride. Li Suyin's never ending anxiety, the feeling that she was an imposter, undeserving of everything, no matter her accomplishments. She felt Su Ling's dull anger at the world, and far hotter loathing of her own self. She felt Xuan Shi, surrounded by kin but no less lonely for it. Gan Guangli's exhaustion and exultation, his iron confidence and belief in Cai Renxiang. More and more, flashes of bitter resolve in Han Jian, desperate pride and yearning to impress in Xiao Fen. Further, more, flashes from their kinsfolk and friends, pride and concern and wonder and worry. The sorrow of the Sect Head, the empty hollow of an old man who had lost everything close to him, living only in their memory, the other Sect Elders defined forever by loss and vengeance.

More, more, more.It jumbled together, individuals blurring into a maddening cacophony of feeling. It bore down on her, a weight and pressure even greater than the gaze of the Duchess. It was suffocating, anxiety filled Ling Qi, the helpless knowledge that nothing she could do would ever ever reduce this weight, even if she ascended in this very instant nothing could change this awful, dragging weight. It was made even worse, knowing that even this was only the people present at the Argent Peak Sect.
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Also only visible in its absence.
Even in this overwhelming barrage of empathy - Linqin screened Shenhua's emotions, or Ling Qi would likely literally combust.
 
I've been thinking about Cai Renxiang's trajectory, her inevitable need to assert herself over Cai Shenhua in the Emerald Seas, the Fief and the Counts.

One part of the equation is that Cai Renxiang will require our assistance in her journey of self-discovery, self-definition and individuality. Cai Renxiang will need to become her own person, outside of the searing light of Cai Shenhua, in order to meaningfully offer an alternative to Cai Shenhua's rule. When we lack opportunities to make inroads with a Count or their subfactions, assisting Renxiang in her personal journey will always be broadly useful.

Now let's talk about some goals:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I believe one of our goals should be the establishment of a new style of Civic Planning that is a fusion of Imperial and Weilu ideas.

let's talk about some Imperial-Weilu Fusion, starting with the Argent Sect:
The Argent Arts represent unity of purpose and cooperation despite elements that seem to be in conflict. There is balance, with the various elements being provided equal amounts of importance without hierarchy between them. Yuan He may have bonded with a mighty dragon, but he did so as partners rather, than as a hierarchy of dominance. While the Argent Heroes may not have all originated from the Emerald Seas, they all risked their lives for the Emerald Seas and ultimately saved them from further ravaging at the hands of Ogodei.

The might of these heroes would inspire Emperor An's funding of the Great Sects and MoI recruitment of commoner talent into such places. This included the new policy of giving a Noble-Writ to any cultivators capable of demonstrating their talent.

The Argent Sect would then train commoners, and one of the first commoner talents to achieve noble-writ at the Imperial-Backed Argent Sect would have a daughter named Cai Shenhua. Cai Shenhua would attend that Argent Sect, and connect with other youths from across the Emerald Seas who were also unhappy with the Hui. The hole punched in the glamour of the Hui by both Ogodei and the Argent Heroes was large enough for Shenhua to build a rebellion within. Once she'd cultivated to the 8th realm, she burned out the Hui from the Emerald Seas and established Progress across the province.

That same Cai Shenhua doesn't wish to rule the Emerald Seas, and so has a child to usurp her. She was formed with the help of a man who is most passionate about Civic Planning. Perhaps with hope that the child would take up such a passion as well.

So we reach Cai Renxiang, in many ways a product of the Great Storm of Ogodei and the Argent Heroes. She is beginning to explore her individuality and self-identity, with two passions we know about. She does have a passion for Civic Planning, and also a passion for Tea.

We know that the Weilu Reformer faction of Meng led by Meng Diu is attempting to successfully develop a fusion style from the imperial foundations of the Meng's new southern holdings. Ling Qi will even get an up close look at them in person, when Hanyi tours the area.

Our fief was wiped clean by the force of Shenhua's White Plumes, and I believe it's almost certainly an area better suited to developing a successful fusion style than the Southern Meng holdings. Unlike them, we will not be restricted to using Imperial Foundations. This "Clean Slate" on the border is a perfect crucible to develop and stress-test a new style of Civic Planning. A style of settlement that can make use of the ascended Great Spirit Immaculate Angles and the rigid Imperial Geomancy he reinforced, alongside the more cooperative and individually tailored approaches of Tsu the Diviner.

Renxiang has a long way to go to reach Shenhua's level of influence on the province. Developing a new Civic Style that gets widely incorporated into new settlements all across the province would be an excellent start.
 
JowKeen said:
I've been thinking about Cai Renxiang's trajectory, her inevitable need to assert herself over Cai Shenhua in the Emerald Seas, the Fief and the Counts.

One part of the equation is that Cai Renxiang will require our assistance in her journey of self-discovery, self-definition and individuality. Cai Renxiang will need to become her own person, outside of the searing light of Cai Shenhua, in order to meaningfully offer an alternative to Cai Shenhua's rule. When we lack opportunities to make inroads with a Count or their subfactions, assisting Renxiang in her personal journey will always be broadly useful.

Now let's talk about some goals:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I believe one of our goals should be the establishment of a new style of Civic Planning that is a fusion of Imperial and Weilu ideas.

let's talk about some Imperial-Weilu Fusion, starting with the Argent Sect:
The Argent Arts represent unity of purpose and cooperation despite elements that seem to be in conflict. There is balance, with the various elements being provided equal amounts of importance without hierarchy between them. Yuan He may have bonded with a mighty dragon, but he did so as partners rather, than as a hierarchy of dominance. While the Argent Heroes may not have all originated from the Emerald Seas, they all risked their lives for the Emerald Seas and ultimately saved them from further ravaging at the hands of Ogodei.

The might of these heroes would inspire Emperor An's funding of the Great Sects and MoI recruitment of commoner talent into such places. This included the new policy of giving a Noble-Writ to any cultivators capable of demonstrating their talent.

The Argent Sect would then train commoners, and one of the first commoner talents to achieve noble-writ at the Imperial-Backed Argent Sect would have a daughter named Cai Shenhua. Cai Shenhua would attend that Argent Sect, and connect with other youths from across the Emerald Seas who were also unhappy with the Hui. The hole punched in the glamour of the Hui by both Ogodei and the Argent Heroes was large enough for Shenhua to build a rebellion within. Once she'd cultivated to the 8th realm, she burned out the Hui from the Emerald Seas and established Progress across the province.

That same Cai Shenhua doesn't wish to rule the Emerald Seas, and so has a child to usurp her. She was formed with the help of a man who is most passionate about Civic Planning. Perhaps with hope that the child would take up such a passion as well.

So we reach Cai Renxiang, in many ways a product of the Great Storm of Ogodei and the Argent Heroes. She is beginning to explore her individuality and self-identity, with two passions we know about. She does have a passion for Civic Planning, and also a passion for Tea.

We know that the Weilu Reformer faction of Meng led by Meng Diu is attempting to successfully develop a fusion style from the imperial foundations of the Meng's new southern holdings. Ling Qi will even get an up close look at them in person, when Hanyi tours the area.

Our fief was wiped clean by the force of Shenhua's White Plumes, and I believe it's almost certainly an area better suited to developing a successful fusion style than the Southern Meng holdings. Unlike them, we will not be restricted to using Imperial Foundations. This "Clean Slate" on the border is a perfect crucible to develop and stress-test a new style of Civic Planning. A style of settlement that can make use of the ascended Great Spirit Immaculate Angles and the rigid Imperial Geomancy he reinforced, alongside the more cooperative and individually tailored approaches of Tsu the Diviner.

Renxiang has a long way to go to reach Shenhua's level of influence on the province. Developing a new Civic Style that gets widely incorporated into new settlements all across the province would be an excellent start.
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Personally I don't think the weilu reformists are trying to create a fusion style. They want to prove their ways as better than the imperial ways. They don't want to compromise with them.

That is the great advantage of the Emerald Seas. Just like the music of the pand there are many different ideas and systems competing with each other. Trying to unify every one of those systems into a grand civil style is, in my opinion, a mistake. We don't want the Weilu style to beat the imperial style. We want it to compete.

Competition reveals new and novel ideas for how to do things. There are a thousand problems and for each of them there is a thousand solutions. By having the two styles compete each will push the other to be better. To have better solutions than last generation.

I see CRX role in this is to keep the competition constructive instead of destructive. That will take a lot of diplomacy and needle threading to make work, but in the end the competition that the Emerald Seas allows is one of its greatest strengths.
 
It's true that the diversity of the Emerald Seas is its' strength but it can also be its weakness. The reason the Cloud Barbarians were able to do so much damage to the province was because it wasn't able to present a united front. It could be that the Duchess is planning on using her rule to help iron out the major problems the Hui exacerbated or caused, and guide her daughter to be a more middle-ground ruler that will eventually lead to a more traditional Emerald Sea's Ducal family. The many different clans and ways of living will still clash and compete but there would be less systematic issues and there would be strong central pillars like the Sect's, the Ducal clan, and Horned legion to defend against outside threats and to stop any competition from becoming destabilizing.
 
Neshuakadal said:
Personally I don't think the weilu reformists are trying to create a fusion style. They want to prove their ways as better than the imperial ways. They don't want to compromise with them.

That is the great advantage of the Emerald Seas. Just like the music of the pand there are many different ideas and systems competing with each other. Trying to unify every one of those systems into a grand civil style is, in my opinion, a mistake. We don't want the Weilu style to beat the imperial style. We want it to compete.

Competition reveals new and novel ideas for how to do things. There are a thousand problems and for each of them there is a thousand solutions. By having the two styles compete each will push the other to be better. To have better solutions than last generation.

I see CRX role in this is to keep the competition constructive instead of destructive. That will take a lot of diplomacy and needle threading to make work, but in the end the competition that the Emerald Seas allows is one of its greatest strengths.
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if competition were the Emerald Seas' greatest strength, what would be the meaningful difference between Emerald Seas and Ebon Rivers? The Zheng have shaped their region into a controlled chaos of competition, with some amount of rules and regulation keeping relative peace. They've tamed and contained themselves, as Apes have been known to do.

In fact, all the provinces have a deep history of competition and conquest to them except the Emerald Seas. Red Garden is the most extreme, being a no-holds-barred deathmatch all the time no breaks. Thousand Lakes limits their competitions to competitions within your caste, although those competitions are no less brutal for it. Xuanwu are known to be very territorial, and the sword Xuan Shi talked to made an offhand comment about how the Xuan are in constant competition with the other major sailing powers. Golden Fields pre-Twilight were known to be full of mighty warlords, with the mightiest being the Lu. Post-Twilight the Guo are the mightiest of the warlords, and earned their title with blood and grit. The Jing were mighty sailors who contested other naval powers such as the Xuan, and the Jin are their inheritors.

No.
No Tsu the Diviner wasn't some mighty warlord or admiral.
Tsu the Diviner enjoyed astronomy, weather and plants.
Tsu the Diviner sparked an agricultural revolution that spread far from the borders of the Emerald Seas, improving the lives of those that Tsu would never meet or know about.
Tsu the Diviner lived in an era where the Beast Kings ruled with human slaves/servants and prey animals were lesser, but more respected than the pitiful humans that couldn't even fight.
Tsu the Diviner was able to take his agricultural prowess, his knowledge of weather and astronomy, and wrestle the Horned Lord in order to earn his respect. They became blood-brothers, and through that union were able to challenge the Beast King's might.
The combination of Tsu the Diviner, the Horned Lord, and Xiangmen were able to crumple the Beast Kings that came to assault the humans and Horned ones at Xiangmen. Their corpses are still bent and broken in the throne room of Xiangmen, serving the peoples of the Emerald Seas as a King should. Lifting them up, placing their subjects above themselves.

No. No I don't agree that there is some sort of Competition that is a unique strength of the Emerald Seas. I think that idea's an import that came in alongside Draconic Hierarchies of Dominance, and I think it's been rough for the Emerald Seas ever since the original Weilu fought the Masons' War just to see who would come out on top.

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While the legacies of Bai and Zheng both integrated nicely into the Draconic Hierarchy of the Sage Emperor, the Emerald Seas has not had a single ducal that was able to successfully integrate Imperial ideas with Weilu ideas in a sustainable manner. Let's run through the examples:

The Hui were all about the free marketplace of the ideas and dreams of individuals. They were all about "constructive competition". But if something's a competition, in the end it matters who wins and who loses. Victory needs no excuse. Losers are retroactively characterized as deserved-to-lose unvirtuous parasites, as we saw in the "Shadow of Xiangmen" sidestory. It's a very enticing belief system, but also very predatory and self-serving. The Hui that criticized the way things worked (like the Grandmaster Hui that developed the Punk style that Yu Nuan plays) were quietly killed and removed. Competition was never a unique strength of the Emerald Seas, much as the Hui wished to make that lie truth.

The Xi were expansionist warmongers in the Imperial Style, working collaboratively with many Imperial Clans. They connected with their peers, and structured hierarchies beneath them. A little of the old ways of Tsu, a little of the ways of the Sage Emperor. Ultimately their endless expansions would begin to stall, and after they overcommitted to their support of Golden Fields they fell just as the Sage Emperor did. To assassination at a moment of vulnerability.

The Weilu post-Masons' War were Isolationist, and very much Isolated compared to all the Connected Weilu who had gone out and died in the war. This Isolation allowed them to separate themselves from the province, and in the end what had allowed them to survive the Masons' War would also eventually cause them to disappear entirely from the province. This can also be seen in their loss of Connection to the Horned Lord, and the long decline of Spirit Blood Traits amongst the children of Tsu.

No.
Tsu the Diviner's story is about the underclass/slave humans collaborating with the plants and prey around them to overcome the great and terrible Beast Kings who ruled the Emerald Seas back in the day. Tsu's story is about the rejection of Warlords, not the embrace of that sort of violent competition. Did the Weilu have competitions? Of course! Tsu himself wrestled the Horned Lord to prove his strength! but competitions weren't the sum total of their existence. They didn't live to compete, nor were their lives exclusively competitions.

Draconic Hierarchies of Dominance serve to Isolate those involved from others, and the world around them. They struggle to embody the virtue that is the love-of-peace, and we've a chance to embody that legacy of Tsu. Tsu the Diviner truly embodied that virtue better than any other founding hero, and I think it's high time that the Emerald Seas was able to return to his teachings.
 
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Turn 14: Arc 2-2
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    • I'm sure that's not ominous at all," Ling Qi said wryly, peering into the twisting chasm in the side of the mountain from which the sounds emanated.

    "Your mastery of the art of optimism continues to improve Lady Ling!" Gan Guangli agreed cheerfully, he was kneeling his hand pressed to the rocky soil outside. "Soon you shall surpass me!"

    "Something to look forward to," Ling Qi said. "Though of course, I will keep a hand on my escape talisman."

    "Well enough," her companion chuckled. "This cavern runs deep, and I sense a very large open space within."

    "Anything you can feel, Zhengui, Sixiang?" Ling Qi asked, examining the striated limestone. It was a very high cliff in the side of a particularly ancient and worn down mountain, like a tremendous slumping white dusted hill rather than a cloud piercing peak.

    "There's a strong breeze, cool and damp," Sixiang whispered. "Doesn't feel spooky, but that just means no obvious threat."

    "The fire is very deep and quiet here Big Sister. Gui thinks this old man is very sleepy,"     her little brother chirped.

    "No obvious hostile spirits," Ling Qi agreed aloud, their thoughts confirming hers. "My eyes can go ahead a little?"

    "Of course," Gan Guangli agreed, dusting his hands off as he rose.

    Moon qi cycled through Ling Qi's eyes, a faint silver light in the late afternoon sun, and bobbing wisps appeared within. They vanished around a curve in the crevice and Gan Guangli followed, his heavy footfalls surprisingly soft, though still far louder than she was as she drifted in after him.

    A few minutes walking, guided by her wisps of moonlight carried them on as the crevice widened into a high ceilinged natural corridor. All the while the eerie piping continued, growing louder, more layered and complex. Still eerie, but increasingly beautiful.

    They moved slowly and with caution, but soon Ling Qi's wisps emerged from the crevice and she stopped behind Gan Guangli with a gasp.

    The mountain was hollow, she thought.

    The chamber was vast, its organic ceiling stretching far overhead, and the stone was shot through with colors, pink and gold, blue and green, with all the shades of the dawn between. Great pillars of limestone, smooth and slick with moisture stretched from the floor to the high ceiling above, shaped wholly by natures hand. The floor of the space was a series of deep inky blue pools in scalloped depressions of varying height, rippling softly under the wind that blew through the cavern.

    And there was much wind. Ling Qi felt the movement of air currents above, arriving through holes worn in old stone, the piping arose as the wind flowed through the complex galleries of growing stone in the ceiling. And there was light, because in the west of the chamber, above a series of rising platforms of stone that emerged from the water was a single huge crystal of numerous colors, through which the light of the fading sun refracted. There was a presence there, a spirit and a mighty one.

    Cathedral of Winds Discovered on Third Threshold.
    +2 XP to Wind, Water Light or Sun projects
    -1 GS Cultivation Upkeep when a Wind, Water Light or Sun project is cultivated.
    ??? Unexplored Effects

    But, she felt, it was one unconcerned with them, she felt. So long as they did not damage the cavern, she thought that it would not rise to greet them, one way or the other. She could feel other smaller spirits though, swimming in the pure, clear waters and flitting through the gallery of growing stone above.

    She relayed this to Gan Guangli as they came to the entrance themselves.

    "A most potent environment," Gan Guangli said thoughtfully. "And so large and complex. I do not think this can be wholly wild."

    "I agree," Ling Qi said peering at the overlapping pools. She saw pale faces and bodies in the water, glimmering fish scales and fair hair like trailing water weeds. Wide and doe like eyes peered back with a seeming childish curiosity, and soft bubbling voices raised in song.

    She shot the luring spirits a sharp look, and they scattered like schools of fish before the net. "We'll want to keep the lower realms away."

    Gan Guangli nodded in acknowledgment taking a few steps toward the bright pane of crystal. "Luring spirits are ever troublesome. How do you judge them?"

    Ling Qi peered into the pools where the spirits were now hiding, looking back at her with a wary calculation. "Manageable, they can be talked too I think."

    "Manageable the same way a hawk is manageable to an eagle," Sixiang chuckled. "Well, I'll go have a bit of a chat?"

    Ling Qi nodded, giving Sixiang the go ahead as she trailed after Gan Guangli. "What do you think of the crystal? There's no sign of it outside, but it's clearly receiving sun."

    "An illusion," Gan Guangli said. He stepped up onto the highest platform and the light of the shifting crystal pane sent his shadow trailing across the cavern. Ling Qi held hers to more restraint. "Or… no, I think it may just be the material of the earth here."

    "What makes you say that?" Ling Qi asked, stopping beside him and peering up. It was hard to tell, with the dense area of the cavern but she didn't think the crystal itself was a part of the spirit, but rather… a dwelling? In so much as those could be said to be separate things for spirits. She recalled well Zeqing's little house on the peak.

    "The rock feels strange and light here, as if it might float away into the sky on the current that flows through it," Gan Guangli mused. "And the substance flowing in the stone drinks hungrily of the light and the sun."

    "Well, we'll have to make note then. Maybe get a sample back to the Sect's alchemists," Ling Qi said. She clapped her hands twice and bowed toward the crystal, offering simple respect since she did not yet understand the sleeping spirits nature.

    "Carefully of course," Gan Guangli said, following her lead. "Let us not forget the lessons of the Argent Vents."

    "Naturally," Ling Qi said, straightening up. "Let me guide a little into a container and then-"

    Exotic Deposit Found-Shining Air

    She fell silent as Gan Guangli held up a hand, frowning deeply. "Ling Qi, focus, can you feel that?"

    It was at that moment that Ling Qi felt a pressure in her mind, the feeling of Sixiang returning in a sudden rush. "Hey sorry looks like the there's some trouble! I swear its not my fault, watch the-

    [ ] Water!
    [ ] Ceiling!

    AN: Sorry for the short one guys, shoulda had all of this at the last update but times been tight due to rl stuff so it ended up split in two. Anywho pick your cave gribbly poison for the teamfight!
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Nice update!
    yrsillar said:
    Cathedral of Winds Discovered on Third Threshold.
    +2 XP to Wind, Water Light or Sun projects
    -1 GS Cultivation Upkeep when a Wind, Water Light or Sun project is cultivated.
    ??? Unexplored Effects
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    It's really nice to have a cultivation site that Ling Qi, CRX, and GG can all make gains from. I can imagine all three of them cultivating together in the cathedral while talking in the future and that sounds like a lot of fun! Plus the aesthetics are gorgeous.
    yrsillar said:
    Exotic Deposit Found-Shining Air
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    This also sounds fun. I wonder if it would be useful for the White Sky in the construction of their sky palace. It sounds like it fits what they are trying to do.
     
    I'm thinking the same thing, water seems like the more reasonable option to pick. Fighting in/around the water probably means less chance of a strike missing and damaging the place. Water is much better at dispersing stray attacks than air.

    Also things in the water have less chance of being related to whatever this spirit is I think.
     
    Water! Luring spirits, with songs that lead people to drown? That sort of thing sounds like we're well equipped to handle.

    Also, if we dominate/tam them and potentially bfriend them, I want to see if there will be any fun interactions with Hanyi. Perhaps she'll make singing buddies, learn a new song or two, gain a singing related instinct or.... just nomph and devour some unruly, yummy spirits? I think she'll enjoy a bit of action!
     
    My main goal here at the moment is making sure things go well in the upcoming chat with the...I guess they're cave sirens? They seem interesting and creepy mermaids are fun in general. That said, I don't know which choice is better for that.

    Maybe the water spirit is their beloved mother, or maybe it's a cave shark they're all scared of. It seems likely that the water gets a stronger reaction from them, but it's a gamble whether it's a positive one.
     
    +2 to four different elements? Along with being an exotic materials location? And the head spirit here doesn't seem to wanna eat us right off the bat, or even interact much at all? Damn, this is a good site. We only really make use of one element ourselves, that being Wind, but our allies make plenty of use of Light and Sun for it to be more than worth it.

    Zhengui was right, this is a good place.
     
    I want to fight the one in the water, because I think it's a bigger siren and I want to see what it tempts us with.
     
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