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Post by James Zect on Dec 14, 2008 2:34:36 GMT -5
That James was cold was a bit of an understatement. He was working on a boardwalk. Over the ocean. In New York City. In December.
It wasn't all bad of course, he got to keep all of what he made, just had to pay a little bit each day to keep his spot. He was one of the better charicaturists on the boardwalk though, and there were a few people that were wandering around. He was also one of the youngest ones there, the closest to his 18 was a 45 year old out on the other side of the boardwalk, and the only reason she got customers was because she was wearing a bikini top that myseriously 'fell off' at least twice a day. He rolled his eyes as he continued the serious sketch he was doing. Just a couple of more scratches on the paper and he'd start airbrushing.
It wasn't that bad a job, and he didn't really mind the cold. The one thing he didn't like was people changing what they wanted halfway through the picture. It was really annoying. He had to scrap the whole thing and start anew... and half the time he only got paid half for the second one. Which was why he told them he was charging full price for both, even if he wasn't. Helped some people... not change their minds.
He yawned a bit as he looked over the drawing for a moment. Usually he talked to the people he was sketching, if for no other reason than so the person wasn't completely bored out of their minds just sitting there. However, he was a bit... cold, at the moment, so he was trying to focus. The sun was going to be going down in an hour or so, so he was trying to hurry it up so he could head back to the mansion.
Finally, he was finished. "Alright, here you are," he said, spinning around the picture so the man could see it.
"Hey! That looks great, thanks kid," he said, handing James the money and taking the picture. He walked off, examining the picture. James leaned back and sighed.
Maybe tomorrow I'll see if anyone at the mansion has a battery powered space heater... he thought. He had paid for up until the day before Christmas Eve, and he was going to use it. Not like he had anything else to do. He saw someone coming up toward him, and he put back on his 'business' face. "Charicature or Portrait?" he asked as they approached, not really paying attention to who it was.
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Post by Alexandra Jacobs on Dec 15, 2008 11:22:36 GMT -5
Alexandra got crushed in the contionuous flood of bodies pushing her and draggjng her with them. As she stumbled a number of times, there were irritatedn cusses and grunts. Now Alex wished she had somewhat of a portmanteau to use as makeshift battering ram so people wouldn’t get in her way. Her mom had this bright idea for her to get used to the city and find her way, which was a poor excuse for getting her out of the car since there was no room for a number of suitcases. Half her room had gone. She rolled her eyes.
As the crowds began to lessen with the amount of people, she found herself even more lost. It was way worse than Brooklyn. At least she knows where she was going there. All she had was money, and after already asking a few taxi drivers to take her to the mansion, each time she found she was being forced out of the car. People in the city really were scared of mutants. She wandered some more, until she could smell the sea. What?
Alex had no sense of direction.
She never had.
She ran a hand through her hair, and began rubbing her gloved hands together, trying to create as much warmth as possible. She wanted to turn into a bird and fly her way there, butshe needed to save her energy. The drive had been tiring enough, for she was so nervous she didn’t get hardly any sleep the night before, and no one could snooze whilst someone like her mom babbled away about how fast she’d grown up.
Her feet lead her on, until she was standing at the foot of a boardwalk. Maybe someone up there knows where it is. She could only ask, and if worst came to worst, she would just run away from whoever. She was overeacting, as usual.
A man passed her, holding out a piece of paper. As he moved past her, she stole a brief glance at it. Wow. It was amazing. She moved upthe boardwalk, until she noticed a boy, around her age. She looked around, and noticed a woman on the other side, busy scribbling away at some paper, a young woman sitting in the seat next to her. Oh how she wanted one of those, so bad. It was barely thee minutes before the young woman was handed a very nice looking charicature, if you could go far as to saying that.
Alex realized she was being asked a question. She turned, and noticed a young man, around the same age and asking her if she wanted a charicature or portrait. That was new. She did want something nice to hang in her room. She felt the wad of money her teary mom had stuffed in her hand, at the pocket of her jeans and asked for portrait.
She thought about it for a moment, and decided swiftly that she would ask him where abouts the mansion was. The sun was setting and it wasn’t going to be long before night would fall and the creeps would come out. Surely the younger fraternity surely weren’t as scared as the older ones, were they? Still, hopefully she could find some answers before she would have to start turning into anything.
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Post by James Zect on Dec 15, 2008 17:13:39 GMT -5
James nodded as she asked for a portrait. Only difference between the portrait and the caricatures, really, was that a caricature was usually amusing. The portrait's were actual... portrait's, he supposed. "Alright, why don't you take a seat? I'll get started in just a second, just have to get a new pencil, my other one got worn down."
That, and he wanted to get his blood flowing a bit. It was absolutely freezing out and he'd been sitting bundled up between drawings. When he was done for the day he'd surf back to the mansion. The air'd be a bit cool, but the adrenaline would keep him warm. Get his heart pumping, his blood pumping, his heat... up.
He got up and went over to his bag, moving aside several paint brushes, among other art supplies, to find the pencils near the bottom. He pulled out a couple and a new eraser the one he'd been using had started to smudge. Which was fine for his personal drawings, not so much for a drawing he was doing for a client. Even caricatures weren't supposed to have smudges that weren't meant to be there.
When he'd collected what he'd needed, he went back behind his easel, getting out a new sheet for the portrait. It wouldn't take him to long to do it. His fastest drawing had been a black and white caricature he'd done a while back, only took him 30 seconds. It hadn't been that sloppy either. Not his best work, but, eh. He'd wanted to get back to the mansion.
"So..." he said, starting the sketch of the girl. He'd take his time, this would be his last for the night. "What brings someone out here when it's absolutly freezing?" he asked.
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Post by Alexandra Jacobs on Dec 16, 2008 17:57:22 GMT -5
Smiling, Alex sat in the seat and watched him fetch a new pencil. As he did, she thought about the caricature that she had seen on her way down the boardwalk. If only she could draw like that…Sure, adding your own touches to clothes was fine enough, but that took a while. To be able to sit down with a pencil and some paper and create something that someone would come along and admire, it was amazing. She never knew how they did it. Must get frustrating, she thought. People constantly asking how one manages to draw with such talent. Whilst, others may enjoy basking in such praise.
Rubbing her gloves together, she looked briefly down at her lap and smoothed out her skirt, completely the wrong choice for such a day, and pulled at a thread in her tights, which always turned into great holes, which laddered and ruined many a pair. After her skirt was perfectly smooth, she ended up folding her legs and creasing it up again when he returned with his drawing utensils.
She would love to see it on progress. But she couldn’t fidget. Otherwise it may start to disgruntle him and he wouldn’t want to give her information on finding the school. And then what would she do? Stumble around in the darkness with nothing but a small map that also was stuffed in her pocket, an easy target to…
Oh stop exaggerating.
She snapped out of it as she heard the question, she turned her eyes to him, biting her lip, unsure on how to go around it. “Well er...I’m pretty much new to this city so I’ve gone and gotten myself lost.” Wasn’t so bad. She briefly looked down at her lap, and pulled at a thread on her gloves.
“I’m actually looking for a school, well, more like a mansion, as I’ve been told, for gifted children. Um…Do you possibly know where it is…?” Like most new mutants who were not used to sudden reactions, she flinched slightly and kept her eyes on the sea.
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Post by James Zect on Dec 17, 2008 20:05:48 GMT -5
She appeared to have been working on her appearence while he was turned away. He found that was quite common, even for the caricatures. One time he'd turned away and a man had tried to clean himself up so that he wasn't so easy to make fun of. Which actually only made it easier. He'd tried to take focus off his insanely bad toupee by pretty much turning himself into something that resembled a hobo with a squirrel sitting on his head.
However, this wasn't a caricature. It was a portrait, and she did a better job than he had of cleaning himself up. He dropped the blanket that was around him, revealing the t-shirt and black jeans he was wearing underneath. The cold would make his senses sharper. That, and make him want to finish a bit faster. It was cold... and from the look of the sky, it'd be snowing on his way back to the mansion.
He saw her trying to stand as still as a statue. He shook his head as he continued making the correct lines with his pencil. "You don't have to stand so still. You could even go get something to eat at one of the booths if you wanted. It wouldn't be as accurate, but you could. I'm just saying you don't have to be a statue."
He sketched a lot of things from memory, some things he just did better actually looking at the person. If he'd known her a little longer... which from the sound of her question he might soon, he'd be able to draw her pretty well from memory. His sketchbook on his right was full of sketches of almost everyone at the school. Several of his caricatures (mostly on Wolverine) were very popular around the school.
"The Xavier school's quite a bit away from here. You want Westchester. I'll give you a lift after we're done, supposedly Magma's going to heat the pool area and we're having a party tonight... meaning the kitchen'll be free."
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Post by Alexandra Jacobs on Dec 19, 2008 11:00:32 GMT -5
“Oh.”
She loosened up, slouching a little, and when he spoke, she widened her eyes. “No way! Seriously?” Alex had the drawing talent of a spoon. If she were to draw something, it would take ages to get it looking relatively like what she is trying to sketch. She looked over at the booths, selling a number of things that looked pretty tasty to her. She had a terrible sweet tooth, and was forever hungry. Still, she didn’t bother this time; she needed an answer to her question.
“I think I’ll stay here. I shouldn’t waste too much money.” Well, that was relatively true. Alex wanted to extend the life of her money for as long as possible, however tempting splurging on stuff is, but her mom had stuffed so much on her. She would have given Alex Euro, Sterling and even Yen if she had her way. Anyways, New York City was well known for such wonderful boutiques. She would splash out on some new gear. She brushed her fringe from her face and listened to his answer. Westchester…Where was that? This was going to be harder than she thought.
She lifted her head sharply at his last words, her hair bouncing slightly on her shoulders. “You go there?” It wasn’t necessarily a question, more like Alex repeating it to herself to let it sink in. Finally. The first person she had relatively begun a proper conversation with, were a mutant, and better yet, offering her a lift to the school she was trying to find. She thanked whatever forces lead her to him and would soon lead her to the mansion, cutting out all the wandering she would be doing in between. “Oh, I would love that. Thank you.” She paused. “You have a car?”
Oh, how she desperately wanted a cute car to have. If it was one thing, her parents didn’t want her to have a car. She was of the age, but they both insisted on driving her here there and everywhere. Still, she would probably sneakily buy one and learn to drive it...Somehow. By this time, Alex was bubbling over with questions she wanted to ask.
“Party?
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Post by James Zect on Dec 19, 2008 14:50:00 GMT -5
"I've been sketching since I was a kid. I'm very good at noticing the little details that go into a sketch. Like I said, it wouldn't be as accurate if you left, but it'd be pretty close," he said. When he heard she didn't want to spend to much money, he couldn't help but joke with her a little bit. "Probably the wrong time to mention I charge a hundred dollars for a portrait." It was a bad joke, but the serious tone in his voice contrasted with the 'I'm about to laugh' grin on his face.
He waited about a minute before he said, "I'm just kidding. It's 13 dollars for a colour portrait, 10 for a black and white." He continued a few lines, glancing around the canvas every couple of minutes to check something. He'd had the actual job at the pier for about 3 months, but he'd been sketching almost since he was old enough to hold a pencil. Sure it'd started off with stick figures and the like, but it'd gotten better.
He could draw in a couple of different styles depending on what the person wanted, or what his mood wanted. Most of the time it was realistic for the portraits and cartoon for the caricatures. Sorta obvious. He didn't really like talking about his technique though. He just found it kinda boring.
"Not exactly," was his response about having a car. He had a... different way of getting around. That, and if you drove in New York City you were a cab driver, emergency service, or late. As for the party.... Whenever there wasn't someone around, there was always a party.
"Yeah. Basically, someone orders 20 pizzas, gets a few two liters of soda, and they sit around the pool until one of the teachers comes out and tells them to go to bed. Or someone freezes/boils the pool." He reached over and pulled out the last bottle of Grape from a six pack that had been full two hours previously. He drained half the bottle in a few seconds, then set it back down and returned to the sketch.
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Post by Alexandra Jacobs on Dec 22, 2008 17:54:59 GMT -5
[Agh, sorry about the delay]
Alex raised her eyebrows. Sure, she had drawn when she was a kid, but it was generally the taking crayon to wallpaper thing. But, every kid must have done that, right? Surely it didn’t count as talent. She thought about it. Alexandra was slow to pick up on things as a child. She had a worse attention span than most, and never stuck with something long enough to truly develop some sort of talent. She had nimble fingers, which helped when designing and making some clothing, and also playing piano. She sighed mentally. There was no way she could drag a piano all the way over here. She would miss that.
She only realized her head was bent so much her chin was almost touching her jumper when it shot up, her fiery locks bouncing slightly on her shoulders. She dragged her fringe from her face to reveal her chocolate eyes the size of saucers.
100 what?!
If it weren’t for his expression, and the reassurance that it was a substantial amount lower than he had said, Alex would have probably fallen from her seat. She relaxed and slid her frame closer to the chair, huddling up. Sure Brooklyn was cold, but here, in this new environment, it was so different. And sure, Brooklyn also wasn’t far from New York but there were mutants there. Anti-mutant activists, killers, rapists, most armed with mutant powers, drastically stronger than hers. She shivered.
Looking back at him, she tilted her head and thought about it. Of course, he must use his powers, like Alex did. On a pair of wings, you could see all and go wherever you wanted without a doubt, forget all your worries as breezes whistled past you and through your feathers…
Alex. Stop doing that.
She snapped back up and grinned. “Sounds like fun to me.” Pizza, soda. Whether it was curled up on a squishy sofa watching a chick-flick or running around claiming dibs on slices to upbeat music, it was Alex’s favourite combination. She raised her eyebrows and grinned at the last part, then at the half empty bottle of soda. “Impressive.” Of course, much to her mothers dislike, Alex had some definite boyish habits, specially around boys. Belching contests, arm wrestles, the lot. Being apart from Ty and his mutant gang had caused her to shrink back and find comfort in girlish things. It wasn’t that unpleasant.
“Oh, I never got your name. I’m Alexandra.” Ugh... “But, I guess if I’m going to be at the same school, please call me Alex or Lexie.”
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Post by James Zect on Dec 26, 2008 15:48:14 GMT -5
((Same xP))
"Sorry about that. I tell people that joke first, since it makes 10/13 seem like a little less. I would charge less, but it costs me a hundred dollars a week to keep this spot. I charge more in the winter than in the Summer since I get less customers. I'm lucky if I get two people a day in the winter," he said. It wasn't great business in the winter.... Who wanted to go to the beach when it was twenty degrees out?
He heard his soda fall to the side because of the breeze and he sighed. It wasn't that he was annoyed with that. It was just he didn't want to stop sketching to pick it up, and he didn't want it to roll off the pier. So he pointed his left hand to the ground, and a white band of energy appeared around the soda, lifting it up over the easel, where it hung. He didn't use his power for much other than when he was playing x-man, so he used it for a few more mundane things.
He finished the basics of the sketch and started to put in the details. This was what he liked to look at the person. A wrinkle on their brow, an unnoticed freckle.... Anything else he should add. He glanced around the easel, taking a quick look at her. She had a looklike she was imagining something in her eyes. It was a nice look.... He started to imitate it in the drawing.
"I like the parties because I can usually get one of the tv rooms to myself. Head into the kitchen, grab one of my sodas, a couple of slices of pizza. I think I'll probably be watching a movie Cyclops or someone rented. Employee of the Month... I think." He wasn't very big on movies, but he wanted to watch it. Someone had told him it was good.
"James," he said with a small grin. "But most of the people at the school seem to like to annoy me. They call me Reaper." Didn't matter if he had a homicidal maniac locked away in his head. He was just another target.
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Post by Alexandra Jacobs on Dec 27, 2008 19:37:37 GMT -5
Alex lifted her legs and stole a glance at her boots briefly. They were scuffed and holes threatened to appear, but they were comfy. Again, her head snapped up and she leant her torso in, eyebrows pulling up then together. “100?! Wow. That’s a pretty steep amount.” She let out a whistle and shook her head. Guess there still isn’t such a thing as a free lunch. Mulling it over, she wiggled her legs and inspected her boots again.
Her eyes watched to soda fall to the ground, and after a beat, she leant forward to pick it up for him. “I’ll get that for-“Before she could say any more, the soda had been lifted by means other than simply picking it up. She watched, in a slight awe as it stayed suspended in the air. “You…Er…” Her eyebrows knitted together before she relaxed and leant back in the seat, watching the soda. “Say, that’s er…” Alex lifted a hand and sort of half pointed to the soda. “How do you multi-task like that?” Alex was sure she couldn’t do something like that, even though it was a woman’s natural ability to multitask. She couldn’t run and transform, or speak and transform. She hadn’t tried it that much.
“I guess…” Alex didn’t quite know how big this school was. If it had a pool, and more than one room with a TV in, it must be pretty big. Although, judging by her absolute lack of direction, she wasn’t that good at finding her way around. She needed to catch up on a few movies. With her dad, Alex had always wrestled with the remote, and ended up watching the game. She had been pretty much brought up on Buds and Football.
Tilting her head, again her eyebrows knitted together in somewhat confusion. “Why would someone do that? Surely they are in the same position as you are, right?” This pretty much stumped Alex. She couldn’t exactly get her head around why mutants would pick on mutants in the same school. They surely must have felt the same prejudice as the rest. Sighing, she shrugged. “Are they afraid of what you can do or something like that?”
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Post by James Zect on Dec 31, 2008 2:41:23 GMT -5
((Me too ^^))
"Yeah. I just set my price though, I just have to pay for the spot. The closer to the boardwalk the more expensive, so this is about the spot for moderate price," he said. Some people liked the explination. Some gave him a look that said 'shut up and finish the drawing'. He couldn't really blame the people, it was kinda boring. It was... different, he supposed.
He glanced over at her when she asked him how he multitasked. "It's not that hard. I practice by doing something and tossing a ball of energy into the air, so something like that's not really hard. If I concentrate I can make little figures if I want to and make them do things," he replied. Usually he copied figures from action movies.
He listened to her and he couldn't help but laugh slightly. He'd been tormented since he was 8. His first couple of years at the school he'd been the personal tormentee of a telepath. He still didn't trust many telepaths, but the fact that it'd been Emma Frost that'd helped him fix his powers he was better then he had been. He still didn't like having anyone else in his head.
"It doesn't matter where you are, a school is still a school. You have the nerds, the popular kids, the jocks, and the jerks."
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Post by Alexandra Jacobs on Jan 2, 2009 22:34:01 GMT -5
Alex listened to the explanation. Her mother had always told her, from experience, that one shouldn’t judge someone, just by looks. A hobo, as crazy as it sounded, could have once passed you on the street in an Armani suit Sure she liked to get to know people but, she judged before so, and that was pretty much her downfall.. The thought of it still brought a smile to her face. She was so eccentric, it was like Alex was playing the mom role most times.
“Well, it may look easy to you, but to me, that’s real impressive.” She grinned after. Must be pretty cool. Having little people amuse you by doing what you wish, and being able to conjure what you want, when you want, and make it do what you want. The idea was so cool. Though, she had always marvelled at the sight of other mutants powers.
At that, Alex shrugged. “I always believed the last three always counted as jerks.” Her words were more of a mutter as she shrunk a little into herself, remembering those times they had picked on her, and her closest friend. When she found her powers. Ugh. Inhaling deeply, she lifted her head again and pushed the red tresses over her shoulders. “I never really fit in. Never good with computers, not that great at sport. Sure I was good with people, but I didn’t have the image that the popular kids wanted I guess. So I was just me. Though they didn’t exactly like that either.” Waggling her legs again, she tilted her head. “So, what about you?”
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Post by James Zect on Jan 3, 2009 1:15:53 GMT -5
"Energy creation and manipulation is an interesting power I suppose. It just gets annoying when whenever I say it people think I mean electricity. I wonder how often Stark gets asked if his suit is really made of Iron," he said, the last more of a comment to himself. Iron Man was certainly one of the more interesting heroes.... But he supposed when you shared a bathroom with Wolverine and Colossus actual powers kinda lost their novelty.
Although, sharing a bathroom with the 'world's greatest heroes' also made them seem less like heroes and more like people that spent 4 hours in the bathroom. Jean, Storm, and Shadowcat were the three that spent the most time in the bathroom, which was why he was glad he wasn't a girl. He felt a little sorry for the girls though. He didn't have it that bad. Although Wolverine had broken the shower for the men's room a good... 3 dozen times... in the last 5 months.
"In my experience it's the telepaths that tend to be the jerks. Just because they know everything they seem to think you can toy with it. Some of them are okay.... Not a lot of them though." Okay, maybe he was being a bit tough on them. A few of them were okay. Just the one telepath his first year at the school that liked to completely tear apart his mind on a regular basis.
"As for me... I'm that kid that you see in the corner of the lunchroom with at least two seats between him and everyone else, and will occassionally sit with one other person." He finally finished off the sketch and blew off a few stray marks. "Do you want to see the black and white to see if you want it or do you want me to start working on the coloured version right away?" he asked.
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Post by Alexandra Jacobs on Jan 5, 2009 16:56:48 GMT -5
“Wow, that sounds like an awesome power to have. It’s…Different.” Stretching a little, she thought about what he said next. “I dunno. I guess because it is so interesting, they find it hard to understand. Though I cant really blame them, myself. Something fascinating such as having powers, I guess other people could make mistakes understanding, if something is hard to explain.”
“Telepaths? I’ve never met one, or should I say, I don’t think I have. Well, seems I’ve only come into contact with two mutants, the second being you.” She smiled to herself briefly, remembering the time she spent with him and Soph before he moved and so did Alex. It was like she was destined for people to come into her life as hastily as they leave. Hopefully, this here would be different.
“I’m not too sure I could say I was the same. But I had two firm friends, and together we caused all the trouble.” That was enjoyable, too. Her most vivid memories were in the cafeteria. People didn’t expect to find mice running around their feet, nor a force throwing their food into their faces and at others. Which was why she saw most detentions writing lines about food fights. Even if proof was minimal.
“Uhm…I don’t know…” Either way, Alex didn’t mind that much. If it was dark, and by the look of the sky, it was going to get dark pretty soon, she didn’t mind black and white. But if he was willing to color it, either way suited her. “Whatever you think would look better, and we’ll go with that.”
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Post by James Zect on Jan 6, 2009 17:13:34 GMT -5
"You'll find there are plenty of different powers. About a year ago there were twin sisters staying with us. They were part cat. Tails, ears, print-like skin, the whole nine yards. They were complete geniuses too. They made a super computer look like an abicus. They were pretty strange too... unless they were near each other, they physically couldn't sleep." He couldn't really remember their names....
Love and Doom, maybe.
"Which is why my 'explination' is a ball of energy or two curling around my finger or something." He didn't like saying 'no, not electricity' a hundred thousand times. It got real old, real fast. Which is why he was glad few people asked him what he did in the Reaper cloak with his staff. The staff propped up next to him.
"What's your ability?" he asked, more out of a desire to keep the conversation going, for her sake, than actual curiosity. He knew how boring it got just sitting in the chair not doing anything. So, he tried to provide a conversation occassionally to help them feel a little... less... bored.
James shruged. Sometimes he was in a colour mood, sometimes he was in a b&w mood. Right now he was somewhere in the middle. He turned around the eisle so she could see the sketched likeness. "If you like that one, I'll ink it and you can just keep it that way, or I can ink it then airbrush it, whatever you want." He hated using the airbrush most of the time. It was quicker than most of his other things, sure, but he didn't like using it....
Didn't mean he didn't though.
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