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memos-in-avernus · 6 months ago

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One / Jenny

A ripple shuddered across the oil-slick surface of the coffee in the pot, the dispenser bleeding its’ last into the brew. Jenny shuddered right along with it. By some greater mercy or malice, there was just enough coffee left in the pot for one pitiful cup, enough for her to be able to leave the break room and start her day.

Jenny was hardly a star employee. In fact, despite her best efforts, Jenny was about as far from efficient as you could be in House Doras. An efficient employee would have known that ‘on time’ was no fewer than fifteen minutes before clock in and would have already forced in some pleasantries with her coworkers before having a day full of checking in and circling back. At the very least, an efficient employee would have been smart enough to get to work before the coffee went stale. Instead, Jenny was here wasting company time as she stood alone in the break room, hands in her pockets watching the coffee dispenser drip, drip, drip just out of sync with the clock above. Two empty vessels facing another fucking day in Avernus.

Normally Jenny wouldn’t have any qualms about taking the time to make a fresh pot- not as a workplace courtesy, of course, but simply because a good cup of coffee was necessary for her to cope with all the sycophantic try-hards that lurked the halls of House Doras. Today was the start of a new week though, it felt a little early to already dragging her feet. She tried to ignore the bitterness she felt rising at the back of her throat as she drained the remains of the pot into a white paper cup - no cream, no sugar, at least that much was efficient about her.

Jenny skulked down the cavernous marble halls of the Staffing Resources department with her cup in hand, stealing glances into each of the tinted glass offices as she went. Each was home to the menagerie of carefully refined Doras management, model employees that were all gleaming teeth and sharp edges. Jenny had never been to a zoo but she imagined the animals here were even more vicious than the animals they might have caged there.

By comparison, she was painfully out of place in these halls. Where so many of her coworkers were vying to stand out, it was almost like she was fading into the background. [describe jenny’s appearance]

At its’ best, ambition is the light that guides in the dark, the tide that lifts all ships. For those that are not careful though, ambition can turn- it can fester and fade into the darkness that smothers and consumes, it can swell like the waves that toss and crush. And Jenny had not been careful enough.

Sure she had been allowed to remain under the roof of House Doras, a great mercy indeed, but everyone knew that the Staffing department was an afterthought in the grand scheme of things. For gods’ sakes, Staffing employees weren’t even granted full lift access. Her transfer paperwork had listed her official reason for transfer as “internal restructuring,” but she knew it was little more than a petty punishment. Her time in a new department had long since corroded her enthusiasm for the work and to say that Jenny was in a bit of a rut was… something of an understatement.

Jenny shuffled to her desk in the middle of the floor and finally made to start her day. Like her, the desk was rather unremarkable in the cavernous common area. This was by design of course, as the less her workspace drew any attention, the less likely she would be to draw any ire. It was completely bare, save for her now half-empty coffee cup, a single standard notepad and pen, a company-issued phone, and her copper nameplate. Jendra [Lastname], D161648-SR4794. The dark letters etched on its surface swallowed the soft white light glinting through the veins in the stone ceiling high above.

As a bonus, a sparse desk meant clearing out would be that much faster when she finally made it out of this purgatory. Maybe they’d forget she had even been there at all.

Around her the rest of the department was already humming along in its usual rhythm. Incident reports flowed from the tips of finely sculpted arms and status updates spilled from behind carefully rehearsed smiles. Their voices bounced of the polished mausoleum walls of House Doras and settled around Jenny at her desk. Today they brought her whispers of something new finally trickling down from the higher halls of House Doras. Jenny pulled a well-used notepad out of a drawer and began making lists for the day as she listened.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do drinks tomorrow night, Van, I’m slammed processing the paperwork for all these temp hires. I mean look at all this.” Exasperated, she waved to a stack of files already extending above the lip of the iron paper tray attempting to contain them all. “I’ll be lucky if I get through all of this before the end of the week.”

Alyona and Van were relatively new to the Staffing floor, at least compared to Jenny. Van had been hired on as part of a contract deal about eight months ago, Alyona not long after that. Ever since the two became quite a reliable fountainhead for office gossip. Jenny might almost be grateful for them, had she not found them to be insufferable lushes.

“It’s fine, we’ll probably have to reschedule anyway. Donovan was telling me at brunch yesterday that Materials has been running them ragged processing all these new samples. They said it’s getting harder to wash acid smell off their skin every night, they’re afraid it might be permanent if things don’t slow down.”

“Yikes, and I thought my ink stains were bad.” Alyona raised her left hand to show off the patches of skin that now held a faint blue tint. As Van inspected the damage, a squat yellow imp in a wool suit shuffled by with a mail cart bursting at the seams, depositing a thick bundle of papers into the already overflowing tray. Jenny thought for a second that a vein was about to burst in her forehead, but Alyona collected herself and went to work unpacking the files.

Jenny smirked from over the lip of her coffee cup as she watched. Materials, now there was a department worth paying attention to. In most Houses, Staffing Resources was the last bend in the river of information. By the time any bit of gossip made it to the department, it was as good as public knowledge. But Jenny had been paying attention. She could almost hear the house buzzing lately. She had been able to piece together disparate bits of conversations over the last few weeks and knew that wheels were turning somewhere in the Bowels of Doras. Even from the bottom, Jenny could sniff out her opportunity.

She flipped to a page deep in her notepad where she had written three things:

OUTSOURCE DISTRIBUTION / Tharla Kareniva had been seen taking meetings with someone in House Halostnaa. Avernus was a city of hundreds of meetings, but it wasn’t every day a big wig like Tharla was venturing into enemy territory for a quick chat. Jenny knew this had to be something huge if they were sending her in.

AGGRESSIVE EXPANSION / Once Jenny knew where to look, she kept her ear to the ground. After a couple of weeks of fishing for intel, she overheard a couple of Halostnaa yuppies at Glaive & Musters yammering on about not being able to get work any done, what with all the noise and dust of construction at the campus. Pitiable soul, the view from his office was ruined now. Of course, he hadn’t been so foolish as to let slip what was being built, but if Halostnaa was expanding, it meant they were either acquiring a lot more staff or offering some new service that required space.

QUALITY ASSURANCE / Jenny had been sending temps to more than just the usual places as of late, lots of new suppliers and exotic locales. Shipment descriptions had been vague but Jenny had a sneaking suspicion it was tied to Halostnaa somehow. This bit about testing new materials at least confirmed that Doras wasn’t sourcing a cheaper iron supplier- they were bringing in all new materials.

The gear were turning now. She had the who, the where, and the what, now she just needed the why.

A slim stack of files plopped on top of Jenny’s notes, interrupting her thoughts. The edge of one folder caught the tip of her pen mid-sentence and sent it careening off the page, turning ‘WHAT MATERIALS?’ into just ‘WHAT MATER-’ and scribble that leads nowhere.

“Add in your notes after the onboarding and bring me copies by end of day.”

They had done this hundreds of times before, and by this point, Jenny knew exactly how much Alyona to offer her. Jenny just cracked open the first file and leaned over her desk, offering up a saccharine smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You got it.”

Alyona paused and studied her for a moment. “You know, you really might want to consider cutting back on the coffee. Your teeth are starting to yellow. I can recommend a good whitener if you want?”

Without waiting for an answer, she sauntered off to mete out the rest of the assignments. Delightful, that one. At least now Jenny was free to parse through the other two files in peace. She jotted down some quick notes in her notepad as she drained what was left of her coffee. Another onboarding on deck.

Jenny’s main function in the department was onboarding temp hires. In Avernus, these were people brought on temporarily to help with short-term projects or to help existing staffers cross the finish line in the busy seasons. “Temporary” might as well have meant “disposable” though. It was an open secret in the Hells. Temp work was mostly reserved for the gigs that were either too dangerous to waste good employees on or too messy to be traced straight back to company hands, and tended to attract only the desperate, the gullible, or the deranged. With temp work, there was plausible deniability on both sides. Jenny’s job wasn’t to get mired in the ambiguity of it all though - her side in all of this was clear. She was to explain the rules, make clear the objectives, and get the poor fuckers out the door as quickly as possible.

Who were the unlucky players this go around? A few locals, shuttled over from one of the many temp agencies that kept Avernus running. A former scrap yard machinist, a farmer from the outskirts of Avernus, and -this was a rare treat- someone with no prior experience? Adorable. She’d be sure to really turn on the charm today.

At least this one was only a smaller group. Generally smaller meant that the House didn’t expect to lose too many through the course of business. Larger teams meant they needed, well, a larger margin of error.

Jenny heard her coming before she saw her, kitten heel pumps clack clack clacking their quick tempo down the glossy hallway, the scent of her powdery perfume wafting into the room long before she did.

Karol.

If Jenny had been an optimist, she would have described Karol as someone who had truly found their life’s purpose at House Doras, someone extremely well suited to their station. She would have used words like ‘vivacious’ or ‘commanding.’ Perhaps if she was waxing poetic, she would have even compared Karol to a candle- a guiding light, a comforting presence in an otherwise dark and devouring place. Unfortunately though Jenny wasn’t an optimist, and Karol was not exactly radiant. If Jenny did describe Karol like a candle, it would be in the way she always looked as though her waxy face was slowly melting. Not to mention the fact that her hair stood up on the top of her head, just like a wick. It was a small wonder no one had tried to light her on fire after all these years.

“Jendraaaaa, good morning darling!”

Karol bustled over Jenny and poured herself onto the edge of the desk, angling her stout body to face Jenny.

“Just Jenny is fine, Karol,” she said flatly, edging her coffee cup carefully away from Karol’s perch. She despised it when the people here used her full name. Jenny surely had made this request dozens of times in her time in Staffing, and at this point, she wasn’t sure if people just didn’t remember she had ever asked of it or if they were doing it to spite her. The soil rejecting the roots. At least if she could convince them to simply call her ‘Jenny’ it would feel like she was wanted here. Respected, even.

“So Jendra,” Karol smiled and waved her coyly off like it was a long-running gag the two of them shared. “Another group of temps coming in today, ready to listen to what you’ve got to say! Are you ready?”

“Of course, Karol, you know me. This is what I do best.” More like this was all she was allowed to do.

“Oh this is true, my little superstar! Now, I know you are a seasoned professional dear, but I wanted to stop by your desk this morning because today we are going to change things up just a little bit.”

Karol leaned in conspiratorily to Jenny, and over her shoulder Jenny could see Van and Alyona snickering in her direction. Jenny pulled her coffee cup closer, raising it to her lips before she remembered it was empty already. Fuck. She sucked in a breath and prayed this would be a short conversation, but knowing Karol…

“You’ve been here for a while now,” she began carefully, ”and you have been just so wonderful to have on the team. You do good work, you’re smart. I know that I can trust you to whip any group of new hires into shape. But it seems like we still haven’t quite found your lane yet, where you fit into all this.” She gestured loosely to the office around her.

Jenny felt herself starting to panic. Surely if she was getting fired, it would be a closed-door meeting? She opened her mouth ready to defend herself, but before she could protest, Karol continued.

“Smart cookie that you are, I'm sure you've heard there’s a big new project coming down the pipeline at House Doras.” Karol produced two small leather portfolios from under her arm with a flourish and balanced them on her lap, the crest of Hose Doras embossed on the supple surface. Jenny straightened in her chair. This was promising.

“Normally your involvement with things begins and ends in the onboarding room, right? You get up there, you say your piece, they leave, and you start all over again. Not a lot of opportunity there for long-term involvement with projects. With this though,” she tapped a long fingernail on the Doras logo with a muted thump, “I think there’s a real opportunity for you to show us that you can see things through from start to finish.”

“Karol is this….” Jenny eyed her warily, testing the waters before she got her hopes up. “Is this finally a promotion?”

Karol stifled a laugh and tried to cover it with a shake of her head.

“Gracious no, darling, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” the shoulder pads in her blazer raised slightly. “It’s certainly a step in the right direction though.”

“Yes, of course.” Jenny visibly deflated at that, but she wasn’t surprised. She smoothed the front of her blouse and recovered, slipping back into her usual controlled demeanor. “Either way, I’m thrilled at this opportunity and I’m ready to expand my role in the House.”

Karol sighed and offered her a soft, crooked smile.

“Jendra, I’ve worked with you for a while now, and by now I think it’s pretty apparent that you just… don’t fit in here.” Karol’s eyes swept across the office around them, gliding over each of the bustling members of the Doras Staffing department as she spoke. “When you’ve been somewhere as long as I’ve been here, you learn a thing or two about what it takes to keep the wheels turning, what the machine needs to keep running. The people who thrive here, Jendra, you just don’t share their… temperament. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing!” Her focus settled back onto Jenny, the weight of it more than what Jenny was used to. She lowered her voice so that only Jenny could hear. “I wanted to make sure you were on this project because I see promise in you Jendra. I really do. And I think that something like this will be good for you. Maybe it’ll help you shake out the cobwebs.”

Karol rose from her perch on the desk and handed Jenny one of the leather folders.

“Be sure and read through that before orientation. Everything you’ll need for this mission is in there. Of course, your scope of ‘need to know’ is fairly limited, but I can tell you this much- big things are coming, hon, and I want to make sure you’re leading the charge.”

Jenny gripped the folder tightly in her hands and considered Karol’s words. She wasn’t sure just what her angle was, but at least one thing was true - this was indeed a step in the right direction for Jenny. She nodded resolutely, holding Karol’s gaze.

“You won’t regret this, Karol.”

“I’ll see you at orientation.”

Karol straightened her skirt before scurrying off down the hallway, sprinkling a trail of pleasantries in her wake with each of the floor workers. Jenny watched her as she left, catching Alyona’s eye as Karol turned a corner. She appeared barely able to contain her disbelief. Jenny just flashed her a big toothy smile before she tore open the portfolio in front and dove into the brief.

If big things were coming, she couldn’t waste any more time.

1/?

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memos-in-avernus · 5 months ago

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Two / Loji

In a land of devils, free coffee was a small miracle. Loji had just been introduced to what surely was the most beautiful substance the Nine Hells had to offer- sharp, silky, decadent, it was richer than any tea he had ever had back home and more inviting than any ale he had encountered in Avernus. And it was free. Nothing in the Hells was free but as the Styx runs red, the attendant at the front desk had not accepted his money when he tried to pay her!

Loji was [describe loji], and this was his very first time in any of the Houses of Avernus. He and his two traveling companions were seated in one of the many conference rooms of House Doras, waiting to receive their briefing. Loji pressed his face against the pane of glass that made up one of the room’s walls and peered out into the long hallway of other small conference rooms. Each one was furnished with a gray slay table with sculpted iron legs and delicate black chairs, elegant but sparse. This was only the second floor of House Doras, after all. You had to take the lift much higher up if you wanted a room with a view.

Before today he had never imagined that he’d get the chance to set foot inside one of the Houses of the Hells, let alone that he’d be earning coin in one. And yet here was, he and his two best friends, about to start their new job together- his first real job! The idea of earning his first pay filled him with a sense of pride that warmed him to his core. Well, that along with the coffee.

Loji’s eyes traced the dark swirling veins in the glossy stone ceiling above from one end of the room to the other. He was awestruck at just how opulent even this simple room was. He was no stranger to a modestly furnished room, but this was the so far removed from any sort of modesty he was familiar with. This was decadence bordering on obscenity. He probably couldn’t even guess how much this one table cost, and there was a whole floor full of them. How many other fancy rooms like it were on the floors above him?

“Hey Meat, how high up do you think it goes?”

The Meat could not have been a more appropriate descriptor. The red dragonborn sat with his arms folded across his chest in a chair at the far end of the room, back against a wall covered in small white octagonal tiles and a large glass board. The small room only served to emphasize his massive form, his broad shoulders seeming to take up most of the corner he sat in. Sitting there in the white room, Loji thought his scales made him look like a bloodstain soaking into linen sheets.

The Meat’s eyes focused on the door while he contemplated his answer. After a thoughtful pause, he cracked his neck and grunted. “Hmm, fifty? Maybe more.”

Loji gave a low whistle. That certainly was a lot of floors.

Maybe if I work hard enough, he thought to himself, I’ll get to see the very top someday! I bet whatever’s up there is really something.

The Meat had been the one to tell them about the temp agency. Loji had been trying to earn some coin doing juggling shows in local taverns when they had first met. After a few nights performing, when Loji still hadn’t scraped together enough for a decent room and hot meal, The Meat had come to find him in the alley behind the tavern with an offer to split a room. Most people would have been afraid to come face to face in a dark alley with someone like The Meat, but Loji was just glad to have made a new friend. He slept on the floor of The Meat’s room every night after that.

The door opened behind Loji and a wisp of a receptionist slunk into the room with another cup of coffee, hot and beckoning and perfect.

“Here you are, sir.”

Loji began guzzling, downing nearly the whole cup in one go. The receptionist seemed both fascinated with and terrified by Loji’s capacity to consume the liquid.

Loji let out a satisfied sigh and turned to face his other companion, Caladan, who was patiently waiting in the chair closest to the door.

“You’re sure you don’t want any? It’s free!”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to pass on that, friend,” he drawled. “and you might want to let this fine young fella get back to their job. I think four cups is more than enough for today.”

Caladan had found Loji and The Meat in a tavern one night while they were trying to sort through the few temp jobs they had been able to find. Applying separately for jobs would have gotten them placed almost immediately, but it likely would have meant that Loji would be separated from his one and only friend. That was out of the question, so he and The Mean had been working through the agency as a two-man crew. Their most promising leads then had been a gig manning a chronoil drill out on the Abysall Sea for House Ahl-Arimya, and another recovering salvage from War Rigs that had been scrapped in the Barrens for House Tshyul. The former paid lucratively for temp work but was almost certainly suicide, the latter was safer but paid a considerably lighter coin purse for a longer work schedule. Thankfully Caladan had found them when he did, as a three-man team was a much easier sell for the tamer gigs in Avernus.

Caladan was considerably older than his traveling companions, and in the short time they had been together, Loji had come to respect him very much. He was so wise, and always so calm. That was Loji’s favorite thing about him- the Hells moved so fast, but Caladan was never in a rush. Loji knew he had a lot to learn from him, even if Caladan clearly couldn’t tell a good thing when it was right in front of him.

Loji shrugged and downed the last of his cup. Once he was sure he’d gotten every last drop he handed it back to the receptionist, who pointedly deposited the empty cup in the wastebasket by the door before they exited and stalked back down the hall. Loji sat in the chair next to Caladan, his legs bouncing under the table. The temp agency that had sent them here hadn’t given them much info on what their job was going to be, but The Meat said that was normal. Said that was one of the ways the Houses kept their secrets. Loji was excited though. He had never had a job outside the walls of the monastery, and this was his first real venture into the heart of Avernus. Before this he had only ever been allowed into the outer market districts to stock provisions with the brothers of the order. To anyone else a place like House Doras might have been stifling, suffocating, oppressive in its grandeur. To Loji though, it was where his first big adventure would begin.

After what seemed like an eternity of Loji fidgeting and Caladan politely asking him to relax, a woman in a button-up shirt and dark slacks came into the room carrying a handful of folders. Loji thought she looked tired.

She must not have had her coffee yet today.

She handed each of them a folder full of papers and a pen, then made her way to stand in front of the glass board. She folded her hands in front of her and took a deep breath before she began.

“Hello, and welcome to House Doras. My name is Jenny-”

“Hi Jenny! I’m Loji!” Loji beamed and waved enthusiastically at his new friend, which surprised her for some reason. She cocked her head and offered him a small wave in return before she continued. This satisfied Loji.

“I’ll be your Orientation Leader and Operational Handler for this mission. If you’ll please open your information packets and turn to page one, we can begin.”

Loji was already deep into his packet, devouring every word. There were maps to places he had never been, descriptions of things he had never heard of. To be fair most of it was a little over his head, but it was still exciting! From the looks of it, they were headed to some sort of factory way past the outskirts of Avernus for a few days.

“Uh, excuse me? Jenny? I have a question about this delivery.” Loji raised a hand high above his head and bounced in his chair. Jenny addressed him from over her shoulder while she began drawing diagrams on the board.

“That’s alright, I’m sure we’ll cover your question in the presentation. Now,” she snapped her pen down on the table, ”let’s begin with your objective.”

Loji lowered his hand but continued to bounce. Caladan gave him a look across the table as he carefully sorted through his papers. Loki was nervous though. The delivery seemed straightforward enough, but how were they going to get there? None of them had horses. Sure they could walk there as they had been doing in their time together, but how long would that take? There must be a deadline for this job, and Loji didn’t think Caladan could walk for as long as he or The Meat could. Jenny did mention where the factory was, but she was already moving onto who worked there. He had to ask before it was too late.

“It’s just that… It doesn’t say how we’re getting to the factory in these papers? Do we need to get a wagon? Or is there someone who can maybe teleport us?”

Jenny just stared at him, her head at an even more severe angle than the first time. Oh no, did they need to have transportation for this job? Was that something the temp agency had told them? He hadn’t been paying attention when they were there because Caladan had been the one handling the paperwork. Loji was starting to fear he was about to be fired from his first job, so he began backtracking.

“Oh! I mean- we can totally use our own wagon! Ours is… so sturdy and so fast. I just wasn’t sure if there were Dora’s Standard Protocols we’d need to follow that weren’t covered in the packets, you know? Because-“ Loki could feel his cheeks flushing. what would make him sound like a real professional? He fumbled for any other House names that would make him seem experienced. “Because at House Tshyul they were…. Pretty strict about that kind of thing.”

He folded his arms in front of him for emphasis and nodded. He felt pretty good about his recovery. The Meat just snickered from his corner.

If Jenny was surprised before, she looked absolutely flabbergasted by him now. Before she could break the silence though, a knock came from the glass conference room door. Two people he hadn’t met yet walked in, a short older lady in a puffy blazer and a younger lady in a work apron with green skin kind of like The Meats, but different. She stood close behind the short lady with her hands in her pockets.

“Oh good! You haven’t started yet! Everyone, I’d like you to meet Stjila, she’ll be joining you from the Materials department!”

Stjila gave a small wave and stepped out from behind the short woman, taking a seat at the table across from Loji and Caladan. Caladan reach out a hand and made the introductions and began chatting happily. Loji would have been ecstatic to make a new friend had he not been so focused on Jenny and the older lady. They had stepped out into the hallway and Jenny was talking a lot. She looked stressed, like she was definitely telling this lady that she needed a new crew. Oh this was a disaster, he had to fix this. He and his friends could do this job so well, he knew they could! He just needed a chance to prove that to Jenny. Loji tapped his hands frantically on the table, searching for something, anything that would get that lady to go away. If only he had more coffee to help him think…

Yes, more coffee.

He shot out of his chair and snatched the used coffee cup from the wastebasket, then slunk into the hall with Jenny and the lady. Gangly thing that he was, he towered over both of them so he stooped a little to make himself seem smaller. Then he put on his friendliest, most polite smile and help up the cup in front of him.

“Excuse me, ma’am, I’m so sorry to interrupt but… would you be able to bring me any more coffee please?”

The two women halted their conversation and turned to face him. In the silence, Loji couldn’t help but notice just how long and unending this hallway was, like it went on for miles in both directions, like all of it lead straight here. The quiet filled his ears like water and trickled down the back of his throat to his lungs, and just when Loji was starting to think he had made another mistake, the older woman’s entire face lit up with a lipstick smile. She reached up to pinch the meat of his cheek. From here, Loji could see the woman wore a small gold chain around her neck with delicate curving letters that spelled out the name Karol.

“Oh, such a polite young man! Of course dear, we’ll take care of that for you.”

Karol took the cup from Loji and in a flash of grey smoke, it vanished from her hand. Then she pressed a finger to a small device nested in her ear.

“What is your name, sweetheart?”

Loji tried out his best Caladan impression and introduced himself. Karol grabbed Loji and Jenny by the elbows and steered them both gently back into the conference room.

“Well Loji, why don’t you and Jendra head back inside, and we’ll get you some more coffee after Jendra finishes telling you about Doras. How’s that sound, hon?”

Loji wasn’t entirely clear on who Jendra was, but it seemed like Karol didn’t plan on firing him, so that was good enough for now. He smiled and returned to his seat as Karol shooed them all back towards their business. Jenny returned to her place at the front of the room, shuffling her papers and glancing nervously at Stjila. Now that he was closer to her eye level, Karol softly tussled Loji’s hair before she turned to leave.

“You’re not going to have any problems with this one, Jendra, I can tell!”

2/?

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