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TheCog posted:"Yes, it means your senses are keener than I expected. Then again, you do travel with the Sejin, so perhaps that should not be as surprising as it is." he gives you a friendly smile. I'm really eating this poo poo up. Can you teach me some of the chant? What language was it in? Thank you for healing and helping.
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May 11, 2018 16:00
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 02:00 |
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Is this dead or just delayed? I'm hoping just delayed!!
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Jun 19, 2018 03:02
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Clarissa, magical speargirl, will be right back after these important messages!
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Jun 19, 2018 09:40
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OP has been moving I think.
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Jun 19, 2018 13:49
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 The dryness of the air assaults your nostrils, you can almost feel every drop of moisture on your body evaporating. Well, you could, but the sensation of the wind sapping you of the lifegiving water is all too familiar, and in your heart there is a single sensation. Fear. It clutches at your heart. You can feel its cold hand wrapped around it, squeezing. Every breath you take is a struggle, a battle against the weight of that oppressive terror. Its not death you fear. You have seen death. It has missed you distances smaller than a grain of sand. You have made your peace with it. Death comes for all men, and you are no exception. No, what you fear is what will come after your death. To your flock. You glance across the campfire that dimly illuminates the night. Huddled together against the darkness, they look more like animals than people, clinging to the only succor against the palpable terror that has settled on the camp. They are not as numerous as they once were, but they are still many. You drove them, you pushed them as hard as you could. To keep going however would be as sure suicide as to stop. So you made your choice. A few hours of rest. Even knowing they would be upon you before you could break camp. You knew of course you would not survive when they arrived. You can't see them yet, but in this darkness you will only make them out when they are already upon you. Your flock though... they will survive. You wonder now, as you have in the days past, if it would be best if they didn't. The horrors, the terrors they will endure, deep below the earth. Perhaps it would be best if they perished... but you cannot not make that choice for them. You cannot not steel your heart to that degree. They know your reassurance to be worthless lies. You can see it in their weary eyes. The flame that had burned within them when you first set out long ago snuffed out. So you clutch your spear, and feel the deep and bitter fear. You have failed. There are no gods who will listen. No heroes will come to rescue you. Mahjurat min qibal al'arwah , luein tariq alqadr. Fate itself seems to spit on you with scornful glee. You can hear them, skittering upon the sands. It will only be minutes now. You bow your head for an instant. Not to pray, nor to curse the spirits that would not give you aid, but to remember why you fought in the first place. The screaming of the children in that terrible place. The lash, the least of the terrors, the licking of the flames, the grinding of rock and bone and flesh. The smell of putrid decay, and the taste of powerlessness on your lips. You feel the flame of anger at injustice burn in your heart once more. It is hopeless, but you will not go quietly back into that darkness. You plant your feet on the ground. The sound is growing louder. Thirty seconds? Maybe less. You open your mouth, and let out a shout. "UP, UP. THE ENEMY IS HERE. FLEE. HE WHO LOOKS BACK SHALL PERISH!" Your lungs let out shouts of impossible volume. You have been quiet, stealthy, silent for so many days, that you have forgotten the power of your own voice. As your words echo over the sands you clutch the spear, the same spear you pried from the heart of Kemphet moons ago, and gesture.  DAW' RAHIB. You pour every inch of power you have into the spell, and feel your essence pouring into it. It feels good, after all this time, to let the blessings of the spirits flow through you. The cost is great, of course. Half, maybe more, of the essence within you is gone, but a terrible light illuminates the desert. It burns, and blinds, and you can feel its unearthly white glow even standing behind you. Screams, human and inhuman. The sound of terrible gnashing teeth. The light shows all, and you see them, a field of enemies, a true multitude. At their head, your old enemy.  He has no eyes, but even he seems deterred by the miniature sun that blazes behind you. Many of his servants are blinded. You don't feel fear anymore. There is no room in your heart for it. There is only this battle. You stride forward, landing terrible blow after terrible blow upon the screeching horde, each step bringing you closer to him. The light provides you with an advantage of course, but it is not insurmountable, and though many are blinded, many are not. They cut and scratch and scrabble at you. Their blows slide off of you, but for each blow that does, you can feel your essence slipping away. Each blow robs you of the power you need to fight, and the sun behind you, even now it flickers. You have... very little time left, and you have not... you have not done enough. Not yet. You had wished that maybe you could do battle with him again, one last time. Bring down the decisive blow that had so eluded you. Alas. You tug at your essence. A third left. Not enough. Not nearly enough. Not... you see it then. The connection. The tethers. The lines. Fury burns within you.  You should not. It is not your way. But still you reach for the enemy closest to you, and wrap your hand around one of its many misshapen limbs. You speak. Words which are forbidden. Which have never been spoken before. You speak of loyalty. Of bonds closer than blood. Of sharing the thoughts with those next to you. You feel the pulsing of every heart as if you had taken it into yourself. In a single blissful instant, you are part of a single beating heart, a perfect unity of thought. You are one with the beating heart of life, the power that flows through the dessert, through your flock, through your enemies. You gesture, and with a single command, you make it yours. A mockery. A twisted echo of what could be. There is no way a feeble vessel like you can hold the power. You feel it burning you as you serve as an imperfect bridge. In the split second as it consumes you, you have just enough power... just enough... to... issue a single order. A single command.  You.... wake up. You are not in the desert. You are in fact mostly surrounded by snow. You are not.... whoever that was. You are Clarissa. The Sejin is only a few feet away, deeply asleep. It has been two months since you slew the boar... and your nights have been haunted by faint nightmares, but nothing like this. Do you want to tell the Sejin about your dream? A.) Yes B.) No Mini update to tide you over while I finish up the big update.
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Jul 23, 2018 04:24
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A Also seems like a pretty good lesson to take is that we should start expanding our mana pool at the fastest rate we can afford and stop approximately never because drat you can do some real baller poo poo up to and including invulnerability as long as you have the mana to sustain it.
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Jul 23, 2018 04:36
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 A Did we get a good look at our dream spear? Was it Alnaar? Quesitons for the Sejin Ask about the badass light spell DAW' RAHIB, but probably refrain from actually saying it unless we want to kill ourselves accidentally casting it. Who or what is Kemphet? What does "Mahjurat min qibal al'arwah , luein tariq alqadr" mean? It sounds like was probably a curse. Might give us some idea where our vision self was from. What were the monsters we saw? What the hell did the person in our vision do at the end? Any idea from the context what that one word of command could have been? Crazycryodude posted:A Agreed that increasing our pool should be a higher priority.
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Jul 23, 2018 05:23
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Aaaaaaaaaand we're back!
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Jul 23, 2018 05:25
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A AUGH!  Sejin!Glad to see this back, such a neat setting.
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Jul 23, 2018 05:28
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A, and seconding the desire to never stop upgrading our mana pool.
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Jul 23, 2018 05:29
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 A
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Jul 23, 2018 05:52
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A
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Jul 23, 2018 05:58
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A He's a cool dude, I'm sure he has some insight.
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Jul 23, 2018 06:53
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A and getting actually good at things is better than an overlevelled mana pool imo
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Jul 23, 2018 07:11
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A I am so glad to see this back! I was just thinking yesterday that it was a shame it had fallen by the wayside.
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Jul 23, 2018 13:05
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A Welcome back!
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Jul 23, 2018 13:23
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A
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Jul 23, 2018 14:19
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A Yay! I had written this one off as dead, I'm glad you're back!
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Jul 23, 2018 14:35
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A 
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Jul 23, 2018 15:26
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poo poo yes, sick update. A
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Jul 23, 2018 19:53
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TheCog posted:Mini update to tide you over while I finish up the big update. Welcome back!! Dr Subterfuge posted:Did we get a good look at our dream spear? Was it Alnaar? Vote: +1
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Jul 24, 2018 22:17
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A
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Jul 25, 2018 00:29
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B It's been a while since I read this, but as I recall, we were holding back wrt the entity we met when we tried to sacrifice to the missing pedestal. I think this dream may have been about him.
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Aug 2, 2018 03:23
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TheCog posted:
You tell the Sejin about your dream. As you recount it, he nods along, until... "and then I gestured" the Sejin raises a hand to interrupt you, and continues where you left off "And spoke in a powerful voice, DAW' RAHIB. Let there be terrible light, and there was, like a second sun, cold and brilliant, and it blinded the horde." the Sejin seems troubled as he lets silence hang for a moment. "Yes, I know the dream you had, its the tale of Muharar, and his flight from the Chasm of suffering." He pauses again. Takes a deep breath. "You are receiving these dreams long before I would expect. As you have probably surmised, they are not natural." he seems to consider for a second. "They are called Fragments, and they happen to most magic users, to anyone who approaches the Root too closely. There is a moment, when they first come on, when you feel confusion as your mind fights off the encroaching identity. When that happens, you will know, and you will be able to will the dream away. Do so. I cannot make you, and I have no desire to force you, but some of what you can see in those dreams is truly horrific, and will not just upset you, but likely wrap how you see the world. They are all memories taken during immense feats of magic, acts so powerful they echoed in the Root itself." "What is the Root?" you ask, and the Sejin gives you a small smile. "It is one of the great mysteries of magic. It is what allows mana to take effect on the world. When you cast a spell, you open your magic circuits, and allow mana to flow out, you craft it into a spell, and then the Root acts upon the spell, allowing it to transform reality, using up the mana in the transformation. What it is, how it works, are mysteries magic users have spent entire lives exploring." 1.) Do you intend to avoid these dreams? A.) Yes B.) No  You tell the Sejin about the fur-snake the exotic bird salesman had, and beg him, please, to get you one. When you describe what you saw, the Sejin makes a sour face. "That does not belong in a cage. It is a Aythya, it will grow to be longer than a person, and eventually grow wings. They eat exclusively meat and do not make great pets." The Sejin sighs dramatically. "If it is a pet you want, a pet you shall have. There are two ways we can go about this. You can wait till we make it to a large city, which I expect will be sometime next year, and we'll find something suitable, or if you prefer, we can start working on binding. It is perhaps a little early in your magical career, but I think you could manage an air spirit by the time winter is over." He smiles at you. "Which would you prefer?" 2.) C.) I want a spirit, in the next couple months, this will take away from my magic training. D.) I want to wait a year and get something in the city E.) Why not both!?!? F.) Actually pets suck, I don't want a pet G.) Write in.  It has been three months since you left Cloister, two months since your dream. Snow has been intermittent, and for a time you were forced to camp for days without making forward progress. Still, you are finally on the road again, the Sejin intends to make it to the town of Blackpool by night, and you must be close, when the Sejin abruptly stops. He seems to concentrate for an instant. "Something terrible has happened" he says, frowning deeply. "Up ahead." he rummages through his bag and pulls out a small almost transparent rock, roughly the size of a finger. He holds it up, and speaks... in a tongue you don't understand, it sounds like wind whispering through the trees, and involves a lot of short whistles. "Please, keep watch while I do this" he asks you, "and if anything at all were to approach, simply tap me on the shoulder." you nod. The Sejin holds the crystal between thumb and forefinger, and sits, cross-legged. and a light breeze runs over you. It is gone as quickly as it came, after a few seconds, you can see the Sejin's eyes glow faintly. You see what seems to be a perfectly translucent smoke coming from him, clinging to him slightly. He seems to be deeply concentrated, but you see a look of disgust cross his features. After a few minutes, what seems like an eternity, a breeze rolls over you once again... in the opposite direction, oddly enough. The crystal ceases to glow. The Sejin lets out a deep, slow breath as he stands. "It looks like Blackpool has been slaughtered. To a man. A terrible massacre." the Sejin seems pained to say this. "I am going to go, because there is something I must do there, but you do not have to come, it is not a pleasant sight. You are old enough to decide on your own if you wish to witness this. If you stay here, you can set camp, and I will tell you of what I learned when I return." Do you want to see the massacred village of Blackpool? 3.) H.) Yes I.) No J.) Actually, when the Sejin leaves I run away! K.) Write in. A bunch of other stuff happened over the past three months, which we will resolve after this detour. Unless the detour gets long for whatever reason, in which case we'll talk about the other stuff (where you are at with magic, how you're doing on weapon training, where you're at with Alnaar, etc
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Aug 15, 2018 22:31
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Dr Subterfuge posted:Did we get a good look at our dream spear? Was it Alnaar? You are quite certain it was not. Dr Subterfuge posted:Who or what is Kemphet? Dr Subterfuge posted:Ask about the badass light spell DAW' RAHIB, but probably refrain from actually saying it unless we want to kill ourselves accidentally casting it. Dr Subterfuge posted:What does "Mahjurat min qibal al'arwah , luein tariq alqadr" mean? It sounds like was probably a curse. Might give us some idea where our vision self was from. Dr Subterfuge posted:What were the monsters we saw? Dr Subterfuge posted:What the hell did the person in our vision do at the end? Dr Subterfuge posted:Any idea from the context what that one word of command could have been? The Sejin lets out a deep sigh. "And as he was consumed, his whole will was set but to one purpose. Destruction."
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Aug 15, 2018 22:43
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B E H Knowledge is power, even if it might hurt at first. This is a dangerous world and we need to know things to survive. Actively ignoring things, be they dreams or hosed up villages or anything else, is ultimately counterproductive.
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Aug 15, 2018 22:51
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1. B. Nope. Those dreams are ours. 2. D. 3. H. We can handle this.
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Aug 15, 2018 23:46
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a f i
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Aug 16, 2018 00:15
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Questions for the Sejin: -Is there anything special about that Terrible Light spell? I imagine all the spells that show up in the Fragments have gotten a lot of examination over the centuries. -How does someone "approach the Root too closely?" -Are there still people strong enough to imprint a Fragment onto the Root? -Do people know how many of these Fragments there are? -Are some Fragments more common than others? -Is there a book of them I can get somewhere? Someone must have written them down at some point. -Has anyone survived after using so much magic that they made a Fragment? -How did the Malaeun fall? 1A - I'm not in favor of breaking our brains for knowledge when someone has probably already recorded all the Fragments. 2D - Pet I guess? Though really I'm fine with just trying to be buddies with our spear. Spirit would be cool, but spreading ourselves thin now with magic training sounds bad. 3H - Yep
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Aug 16, 2018 00:27
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vorebane posted:a f i this band sucks
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Aug 16, 2018 00:38
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TheCog posted:You tell the Sejin about your dream. Welcome back! Great to see an update!! TheCog posted:1.) Do you intend to avoid these dreams? Vote: A.) Yes TheCog posted:"Which would you prefer?" Vote: C.) I want a spirit, in the next couple months, this will take away from my magic training. TheCog posted:Do you want to see the massacred village of Blackpool? Vote: H.) Yes
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Aug 16, 2018 01:36
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Crazycryodude posted:this band sucks I gotta get my boring votes out there somehow.
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Aug 16, 2018 01:54
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I went to see AFI on tour with an actually good band one time and they managed to ruin the entire night they were so bad, so I just feel the compulsive need to poo poo on that combination of letters anywhere and everywhere it can be found.
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Aug 16, 2018 02:00
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A. G. I WANNA FURSNAKE!! (surely this will end well) H.
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Aug 16, 2018 02:55
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A C H
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Aug 16, 2018 03:13
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B - Learn to explore our dreams, not to avoid them. E - Learn to bind minor air spirits to act as pets until you can move up to bigger creatures requiring more responsibility. H - We go with the Sejin. This will be an unpleasant learning experience, but it will be necessary for our personal growth to bear witness to the barbarity of mankind - or worse. Lux Anima fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Aug 16, 2018 |
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Aug 16, 2018 05:45
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Prince of Space posted:B - Learn to explore our dreams, not to avoid them.
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Aug 16, 2018 12:22
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UPDATE!  1) A 2) C 3)H Let's not do the exact opposite of his advice every goddamn time, dreams get dismissed. Air spirits!? poo poo yeah, do you guys remember that water spirit? She was awesome. Let's look, we're no strangers to horrifically destroyed villages.
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Aug 16, 2018 14:56
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If we dismiss all the magic dreams though, how are we gonna communicate with our new missing pedestal buddy who is totally 100% our friend and on the level?
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Aug 16, 2018 14:58
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 02:00 |
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Dr Subterfuge posted:-Is there anything special about that Terrible Light spell? I imagine all the spells that show up in the Fragments have gotten a lot of examination over the centuries. "It depends on how you define 'special'" he says, "It is an incredibly costly spell, and its structure is still not well understood." He goes on in some detail about how the spell is architected, but it goes over your head. Dr Subterfuge posted:-How does someone "approach the Root too closely?" Dr Subterfuge posted:-Are there still people strong enough to imprint a Fragment onto the Root? Dr Subterfuge posted:-Do people know how many of these Fragments there are? Dr Subterfuge posted:-Are some Fragments more common than others? Dr Subterfuge posted:-Is there a book of them I can get somewhere? Someone must have written them down at some point. "I'm sure someone has. Its certainly something you could try to find." Dr Subterfuge posted:-Has anyone survived after using so much magic that they made a Fragment? Dr Subterfuge posted:-How did the Malaeun fall? "They succumbed to internal strife and external pressure. It was not a sudden action, but rather the result of decadence and the passage of time."
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Aug 16, 2018 15:35
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