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gay-otlc · 2 years ago

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Straight A Supervillain- 14

Shit starts going down.

Content warnings: Politics (fake but based on reality), bigotry (fake because it's anti-superpowers, but based on reality), description of a panic attack and trichotillomania.

Enjoy!

When Cameron first interrupted eir pitiful attempt at writing an essay on henchperson qualifications, Naomi was grateful. This gratitude quickly went away when ey looked up and noticed the look on her face. “Cameron? You look okay? You look like someone just called you cishet,” ey said.

Cameron didn’t even crack a smile at what Naomi thought was a very funny comparison, if ey said so emself. Silently, he handed her computer over, setting it between em and Lani (who were holding hands as they worked, not that it was anyone’s business). “Ugh, is this tumblr? I had to delete my account last year because some discourse bullshit made me set my computer on fire,” ey explained, shuddering at the memory.

Noel gave em a concerned look. “Please don’t set this computer on fire,” he said as he leaned over Lani’s shoulder to look. “Your username is ‘frog earrings my beloved?’”

“I like frog earrings, okay? Just read the post. Naomi, no arson.”

“Dammit, Cameron.”

Before ey could further argue the arson case, Lani scrolled down and began reading off the screen. “IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ! Senate majority leader Laura Smith introduced a new bill on November 5th, parenthesis, and tumblr paid more attention to Destiel smh, end parenthesis, called the Superpower Restriction Bill. Creative name, Smith. This is really bad news for anyone in the country with superpowers, especially for villains which I’d imagine are more popular on this hellsite. This bill orders the draining of power from every supervillain and supervillain in training, people with powers who don’t plan to become supers, and even heroes with destructive powers like fire or super strength. For a complete list of powers that even superheroes can’t have, look at senatorlaurasmith.gov. I know yall get all your news from tumblr dot hellsite even though you shouldn’t, but here’s an Eyver Times article with all this information and I’d encourage you to read that. Stay safe yall, blue heart emoji.”

She left the rest of the group in stunned silence.

“What the everloving fuck,” Noel said, finally.

Cameron nodded. “So, we’re fucked.”

“I mean, the law hasn’t passed yet,” Lani offered. “Smith could be alone in thinking this is a good idea, and people can petition or protest or whatever.”

“Or we could assassinate her.”

“Naomi?”

Ey rolled eir eyes. “I’m kidding, Noel. On the bright side, if this law does get passed, my dad will lose his powers and probably my mom too, they’ll be so pissed and it’ll be hilarious.” It felt strange to mention eir parents so casually when ey spent so long trying to keep that hidden, but definitely good, to bitch about Blaze and Thunderclap out loud. Bitching was always better when people could listen.

Cameron shrugged. “That sounds satisfying, but I would prefer for no one to lose their powers, actually.”

“No, I agree, but that would be a silver lining.”

“This sucks,” Noel mumbled, slumping his head onto his hands.

“It sure does,” Lani agreed. “Should we take a look at the article? Make sure…” she glanced at the poster’s username. “Liveslugsboyfriend-official was telling the truth and we’re not freaking out over nothing?”

Noel nodded. “Seems reasonable.” They all stared at the computer. Naomi definitely didn’t want to be the one to click for confirmation, and by the look of it, the rest of the gang didn’t want to either. Noel was the first to cave, with a muttered “Fuck it.”

The link led to eyvercitytimes.gov, so it was probably real. Shit. The headline read “Superpower Restriction Bill.” Once again, shit.

Lani cleared her throat and read. “Majority leader Laura Smith introduced the Superpower Restriction Bill to the rest of the senate late the night of November fifth. This bill, intended to minimize the damage done by superheroes and villains alike, outlined an ambitious plan to entirely remove superpowers from all who possess them, save for some heroes with less destructive powers. Smith states that she has been apprehensive at the potential for destruction these individuals hold for years, and has wanted to do something about it for a long time. What pushed her to assemble a team of scientists to investigate the cause of superpowers- and how to use that to take them away- was when the daughter of Ben and Alana Rothstein, more commonly known as the heroes Blaze and Thunderclap, endangered her- eir- school when first developing fire powers. ‘This is far too much power for anyone to have, let alone a child,�� Smith said after the incident occured, and she has been hard at work ever sin- Naomi, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Naomi mumbled, intstinctively. Ey could barely hear Lani. Barely hear anything. All the shit that was going on- this stupid senator trying to take away the powers that meant so much to em and all of eir friends and Lani and everyone at this school- it was because of em, because of when ey lost control three years ago and been haunted by it ever since. That day hadn’t just pushed em away from eir parents and solidified their disappointment in em. It hurt every other villain, everyone else with superpowers. My fault, my fault, my fault. If eir friends hadn’t hated em for being related to heroes, and that was a miracle in itself, they would definitely hate em now. Who wouldn’t? Ey hated emself.

“Naomi. Breathe.” The command- eir head was swimming too much to gather where it had come from- brought eir attention to the fact that ey wasn’t, in fact, breathing. Ey made no attempt to fix this. It was too much effort to breathe right now, and that wasn’t a luxury ey deserved, was it, not after hurting so many people.

“I’m- I’m sorry,” ey gasped. The room closed in around em. Was there something on eir chest? It was so heavy, ey was trapped, ey couldn’t fucking breathe-

“Shh. Naomi. Deep breaths.” Something cold touched eir hand. “Please don’t pull any hair out.”

Whoever was holding eir hand didn’t get it. Ey needed to pull hair out, that was the only thing that could possibly bring relief from the anxiety storming all around. I’m having a panic attack, ey noticed distantly. The thought did nothing. Ey still wanted to pull. Ey still couldn’t breathe.

“It is not your fault,” another voice said. Soft, almost lyrical. Ey wanted to wrap the voice around em like a blanket. Lani? Only Lani could make em think such a stupidly sappy thought, so it must have been her. Her voice was nice. Naomi tried to focus on it, tried to take eir spiralling thoughts and draw them all to this one point, concentrate on listening ot her speak. “It’s not your fault Laura’s a bitch and afraid of what she doesn’t understand, or that her only response to something that can be harmful is to eradicate it completely. She’s an adult and you were eleven. Your actions then are not responsible for her terrible reaction, okay?”

It made sense. Lani had a good point. Of course Lani had a good point. But regardless of most of the blame lying with Laura, VHS would be a hell of a lot safer if Naomi hadn’t been there to ruin everything.

“Keep breathing,” said a different voice. “Breathing is important.”

Breathing is important, ey tried to respond in a high, mocking tone. Eir mouth wouldn’t cooperate, but it was nice to see eir internal monologue had resumed being a bitch. Good sign. Ey took a slow breath in eir nose, and out eir mouth. Then repeated the action. And again, and again, until the spiral slowed and eir thoughts sorted themselves into something coherent.

“Fuck,” ey said simply.

“Fuck,” Noel agreed. He was the one keeping eir hand away from eir hair.

Cameron took his computer and shut it gently. “I think we’ve had enough of politics,” she mumbled. “Let’s go… I don’t know. School library? Get some books for you nerds?”

“You’re also a nerd,” ey said. Four whole words. Progress.

“Can’t argue with that. Come on.” He helped em up, and Lani put an arm around eir shoulders as they walked out the room and to the library. Naomi had hoped looking for some nice gay books would serve as a distraction, but unfortunately, everyone around them was hell bent on talking about the new bill. Panic bounced around the hallways and between students. What would they think if they knew I was the kid who inspired the bill? No way in hell would I be lucky enough for them to be as forgiving as the arson gang.

“Naomi. Keep doing the breathing thing. It would be bad if you stopped,” Lani reminded em.

Ey stuck eir tongue out, but obeyed. All ey could really do was breathe and fight a panic attack off with a stick as ey stumbled through the day, badly finishing homework and trying to enjoy the gay books. When it was time to eat eir stupid vegetarian alternative because stupid VHS decided to serve stupid nonkosher lobster, ey barely picked at it. Naomi supposed it was a good thing the food was terrible, because eir stomach was swirling way too badly to eat much of anything, and ey wouldn’t want to miss out on something good.

Dr. Plague got to the stage and cleared his throat into the microphone. It took him several tries to speak through the frantic, anxious chatter echoing around the room. “Ladies, gentlemen, and villains,” he said finally, and the opening usually made em crack a smile and Cameron declare themself all three, but no one in the arson gang said anything. “Given the rumors I’ve heard circulating the school, it seems as though a majority of you have heard of the Superpower Reduction Bill. I’d like to, pardon my expression, set everyone straight on this; the state senate leader introduced this bill that would take away the powers of everyone in this room, and everyone else except for a few of her favorite heroes. This has not passed, and villains around the state are prepared to protest using every tool at our disposal, legal or otherwise. Villains will triumph over policticians.”

Two weeks passed in a flurry of stress, homework, fighting panic attacks off with a stick, and sending letters to state senators encouraging them to vote against the bill. It seemed rather useless, but ey wasn’t sure what else to do. Some students had organized a protest, but Naomi was worried ey would be recognized by Laura Smith as the pyromaniac who started this. Or worse, that eir parents would be there and recognize em. Ey resigned emself to writing letters and letting Lani help em edit out the profanity.

Naomi had almost forgotten about it, but towards the end of November, another reason to be stressed- as if ey didn’t have enough- came along. Time for the next elimination.

It was a little funny how anxious ey had been the last time. It was still a struggle to not go mad with worry, of course, but the focus on grades seemed mildly trivial compared to the very real threat of losing eir superpowers for good. And this time, Naomi felt fairly confident in eir grades. Throwing oneself into work to avoid panicking had its benefits.

Eir last assignment for Villain Monologues before the elimination was one of the few to give em real trouble. “In light of the recent threat to your powers, what does being a supervillain mean to you?” The question kept Naomi at eir desk, tapping eir pencil and groaning, for far longer than Lani would have encouraged em to be awake.

Being a supervillain means a last ditch attempt to help my community to make amends for hurting them beyond repair three years ago.

Being a supervillain means showing everyone that they were right to believe me dangerous, and make them regret being right.

Being a supervillain means continuing to fight the system that tries to hurt me, because it would be cowardly to work as a hero and serve the people who want me gone.

Finally at least half satisfied, ey threw eir pencil down and slept badly.

The next morning, the arson gang silently got ready and sat at breakfast, ready for the announcement that could ruin their cobbled together lives.

Cameron Delos.

Noel Garner.

Lani Hale.

Ey squeezed eir maybe-girlfriend’s hand, holding eir breath as ey hoped to complete their group moving on.

Naomi Lebowski.

“We made it,” ey sighed, leaning eir head on Lani’s shoulder. “Not that I was worried. I wasn’t worried.”

Whatever was coming next, with the Superpower Reduction Bill, at least they would be facing it together.

#straight a supervillain #do you like my descriptions of tumblr in this universe #do you like how i named the antagonist laura #s's writing

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gay-otlc · 3 years ago

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Straight A Supervillain- Chapter Five

Be gay do crime

Name: Ben Rothstien

Alias: Blaze

Powers: Pyrokinesis

Spouse: Alana Rothstein (Thunderclap)

Children: One daughter, under eighteen (name classified as she is a minor) (daughter? Hmm… who could that be? XD)

Education: Eyver Hero Academy

Notes: Blaze, along with his wife, is one of the most revered (or feared) heroes in Eyver City. He first gained fame in 2002, when he stopped a major robbery planned for Christmas Day, when most heroes had been taking the day off. Since then, he has taken credit for his team of assistant’s ability to discover villain plans, and he typically arranges ambushes for them. Fallen Angel had attempted to investigate whether he had an insider working with the villains, but an anonymous family member claims that he’s “not good enough at lying for that.” (it was meeeeee!)

His fighting style typically involves an attempt to inflict minimum damage onto civillians and property, while inflicting maximum damage on his opponents. As fire tends to be somewhat unpredictable, civillians often do get hurt during his battles, but the city as a whole seems to have concluded that stopping the villains outweighs the collateral damage caused by Blaze. This is false. (hell yeah it’s false)

Little information is known about his personal life, but he appears to be somewhat of a workaholic, spending extra time dedicated to taking down villains. He is heavily involved with hero recruitment efforts and vocally holds the viewpoint that every person with superpowers should use them to train and then work as a hero, and he has access to the government superpower database. Currently, he is trying to hire newly manifested supers as his assistants, likely to use them to find villain plans.

Naomi set her somewhat annotated textbook entry about Blaze, definitely not upset that a fucking textbook knew more about her father than she did. He’d never talked all that much about his hero work with her, not in detail. At first, she was too young. Then, too much of a disappointment. Even though it would have been nepotism, and she probably would have said no, he definitely would have been willing to hire his daughter as an undercredited assistant… if he had anyone else for a daughter.

Any daughter other than Naomi, of course.

She almost felt bad for whatever loser ended up working for him in the end. Having superpowers was supposed to be fun, not endlessly rolling a rock up a hill to win Blaze’s approval.

But it wasn’t her job to lament on how much it really sucked to be Blaze’s daughter. It was her job to write a letter of recommendation on how to best counter Blaze. He had recently ambushed Spectrum in her attempt to break her wife, Dusk, out of prison, and the villains were scrambling to find a solution to stop him. Students were given an opportunity to brainstorm for extra credit. Naomi really wanted good grades, just to be sure she wouldn’t get kicked out, so she took the opportunity.

Besides, she had deceived Blaze once before, snuck into a villain school under his nose. This would be easy.

She set the paper down and listened to Lani and Noel talk in the other room, discussing strategy in robbery. Lani was quite good at sneaking past security, she figured, being invisible. Lani was also very good at sneaking into hearts.

Wait. Shut up. She was trying to do homework.

Where was she? Ah yes. Sneaking past security. Blaze was very good at setting up security. He- or rather, his assistants- always managed to keep track of the villain plans. Naomi’s immediate thought was to just not make plans, because Blaze couldn’t ambush plans that didn’t exist, but her history of supervillains class had drilled into her head that trying to improvise crime never ended well. When Auto, meant to be the getaway driver in an arson attempt at Hero Headquarters, broke away from the plan to slash Captain Super’s tires, they got caught because he hadn’t told anyone what he was going to do, and they didn’t plan for his mistake.

So, improvisation was out. There had to be another way to ensure Blaze’s assistants couldn’t figure out the villains’ plans. Could they come up with a decoy plan? But then, they would have to communicate the real plan too, and there was a chance the assistants could get their hands on that. Really, the villains just needed better security. Blaze must have had really good hackers… or really good spies.

Spies.

Naomi knew firsthand how frustrating it was to have to fight for Blaze’s favor, being a teenager with superpowers helping him out and never getting gratitude. It made her want to become a villain. What if the same could apply to someone else? Then, once the assistant was on their side, they could report false plans back to the heroes.

This was brilliant! She was brilliant!

“Hey, Naomi!” called Cameron. “It’s dinner time. You coming?”

She jumped, having been so focused on her villainry that she forgot there were people around her. “Yeah, just gimme a second!” she replied, scribbling recruit unfortunate blaze assistants to villains, have them give decoy plan on a sticky note. Satisfied, and probably overconfident that she would be able to read her handwriting later, she stood up from her desk and ran up to join the rest of her group.

“Lani just kicked our ass at cards,” griped Noel.

“I mean, I was close to beating her…” said Cameron.

Together, Lani and Noel gave him a doubtful look and said “No, you really weren’t.”

“Fine, I wasn’t.” She sighed. “Lani’s really good.”

“Yeah, it’s because I’m great at being ace…” Lani cracked a grin.

Naomi imitated a drum riff for her. “Very funny.”

“Thank you. Technically demi, but whatever. So, Naomi, what were you doing while I was kicking their asses?”

“I was working on that extra credit assignment. You know, the one with Blaze?” She fought to keep her face neutral when she said Blaze’s name. No reason for them to suspect she knew him a bit more than through a textbook and an extra credit assignment.

“Ohh, yeah that.” Noel said. “Any ideas?”

“Why would I tell you? So you can steal them? Not a chance, bitch.” She shoved him playfully.

He laughed and shoved her back. “Fine. I’ll just have to come up with my own, better ideas.”

Cameron rolled their eyes at the pair. “Naomi, you want any help with that? I promise I’m not trying to steal the credit.”

“Suuuure you aren’t,” Naomi joked. “I’m good for now, but I’ll let you know if I need help later, thanks.”

“Cameron, if you’re offering your homework help services, could I ask about the math homework this week? I’m totally stumped,” said Lani.

Shrugging, Cameron said “Yeah, I’m just as lost as you are. Noel?”

“I can try, but I’m really focused on this one formula for chemistry class.” He launched into an explanation about science mumbo jumbo that Naomi really did not follow, but Lani seemed to be nodding along, tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as she intently concentrated on Noel’s mumbo jumbo. Cameron caught her eye, and Naomi gave a bewildered shrug, glad someone else was confused as hell.

Noel paused, and Lani asked a question about… the periodic table? He nodded in response.

“I’m gonna pretend I understood that,” Cameron muttered.

“Yeah, I don’t know much about chemistry. But I know enough to know that you and I have some real chemistry together.” She grinned and made finger guns at a blushing Lani.

Sometimes Naomi flirted with Lani. A little. Maybe more than a little. But she usually tried to pass it off as a joke. If it got too awkward, she would flirt with Cameron or Noel to prove that, what, it’s totally platonic! Naomi was just a naturally flirty person who did this with all her friends. Honestly, she wasn’t sure if she was hoping for Lani to pick up on the fact that Naomi liked her, or Lani to assume that they were just the pal-iest of gals.

Girls pretty. Naomi dumb. It was very hard being sapphic.

She stuffed her hands in her pockets. It wouldn’t do to set anything on fire in her gay panic.

“Anyone ready for the quiz in history class tomorrow?” Noel asked.

“The what?” Cameron and Naomi said together.

“Did you guys not remember this?”

“The what?”

“Jesus Christ,” Noel muttered.

“Stop trying to push your religion on me,” said Lani. Naomi snorted. “But yes. They told us last week we would have a quiz tomorrow.

“What’s it on?”

“What we’ve been learning about, Cameron. The 1953 peace treaty between heroes and villains.”

“Right. Okay. I think I know that enough to get, like, a B or something. Maybe a C+ or an A-,” Naomi decided.

“Wanna study after dinner?”

“I would, but I really want to keep working on this Blaze thing. Definitely think I’m onto something. Or I could do both. Who needs sleep?”

Lani gave her a look. “You do.”

Naomi sighed. This supervillain school thing was a little stressful- evident by the strand of brown hair that somehow ended up between her fingers- but it was still so much better than normal high school, or- heaven forbid- superhero school. Sure, the workload was a little overwhelming, but it was work she enjoyed. “Fine. I’ll figure out a way to get all three done.”

“Good luck,” Cameron said.

“You’ll need it,” Noel added.

Naomi flipped him off as the group entered the dining hall. “Any guesses for dinner today?”

“Naomi. Dumbass. Beef tips is written on the whiteboard right there.” Noel pointed, smirking.

“Sometimes the whiteboard lies,” Naomi scowled. “Also, gross. Beef tips are gross. I was personally hoping for a nice meal of Jeff Bezos, but beef tips! Vaguely tempted to get back to work and just skip dinner.”

Lani sighed. “Naomi, do you have any sense of self preservation?”

“No!” Naomi grinned and gave a thumbs up.

“Come on, Naomi, join me in veggie burger hell,” Cameron offered. The veggie burgers here were truly terrible- Naomi tried one once because it was the vegetarian option when they served ham. She vowed to never make that mistake again.

“...I’ll pass.”

“Actually, fuck this.” Noel lowered his voice and asked “Do you guys want to sneak out and get dinner somewhere else?”

Naomi shrugged and nodded. “There’s a pizza place pretty close by, I saw it when my parents were taking me away for the High Holy Days. Also, there’s a Chick Fil A on the way, so we can flip them off.”

“Or vandalise it with rainbows!” Cameron suggested. “Man, it’s been ages since I’ve done illegal graffiti. What if I’ve lost all my talent by now?”

“Why stop there? I can light it on fire.”

“I think the school will be able to guess it was you, Naomi. And we’re supposed to not get caught sneaking out. Not opposed to the idea though.” Naomi noted that this was one of the few times Lani had actually encouraged arson.

“Be somehow obnoxiously queer by Chick Fil A and then get pizza? Is that the plan?” Noel asked. The other three nodded, and Lani- as the one most liked by the professors- told the nearest professor that beef tips were gross and they were all going back to their room to study.

Half of that was true, at least.

Noel led the way out of the dining hall, chatting about the history quiz. Naomi played up how much she had to study- which, admittedly, was already a lot- so any suspicious teachers would buy their excuse. Once out of the dining hall and walking through the hallways, Naomi shared a grin with her friends, giddy and nervous and excited knotting together in her gut. Lani, being invisible and all, seemed unlikely to be seen by anyone else wandering the halls, but the other three were not so lucky. Still, they got out without much trouble.

Once outside, Cameron took off running, and Naomi sprinted behind them. He was faster, unfortunately. Also, she was flying- there was a good chance that helped with speed. The two stopped to take a breath at the entrance to VHS’s parking lot, and they waited for the others. Lani and Noel had opted not to sprint, and instead just walked until the group joined together.

“Sorry,” apologized Noel, as they picked up walking along the sidewalk. “Figured I shouldn’t run in a binder.”

“No, you shouldn’t. How long have you been wearing it?”

“I took it off for a few hours after classes. Chlll, Cameron.”

“Forgive me for not wanting you to damage your ribs,” Cameron replied, playfully shoving Noel.

“Fair. I do, however, want to damage Chick Fil A.”

“As you should,” Naomi exclaimed, pumping a fist.

As they approached, Lani looked around. “Did anyone bring… like… spray paint or anything?” Everyone else glanced around too, finding nothing. They’d probably all been so caught up in trying to get out of VHS unnoticed that they hadn’t wanted to risk going up to the room and coming back down.

Naomi shrugged. “That’s okay- we can still use this!” She snapped, a flame shooting up from her index finger. She wondered if it’d be possible to shoot fire from a different finger. Worth a try?

“Naomi, I thought we agreed no arson. They’ll trace it back to you.”

“I mean, I won’t burn down Chick Fil A. I’ll just…” Naomi trailed off, allowing actions to speak louder than words. She focused very hard on letting the flames fly out of a very specific finger, looping it around until, very sloppily seared just outside the entrance, read gay :)

Cameron sniffed. “Poetry.”

“I think I should be rewarded with pizza for my efforts.”

Noel nodded. “You definitely should. The middle finger was a nice touch,” he added with a laugh.

“Thanks- I just figured out how to do it. Think it’ll get me extra credit?”

As they walked the next block, the conversation drifted into pizza. Naomi complained about the struggles of eating pizza at her friends’ birthday parties when she kept kosher and most of her friends ordered pepperoni only. Lani raved against Hawaiian pizza (“It’s literally not even from Hawai’i! I won’t allow my people to be blamed for this monstrosity!”) Cameron liked all types of pizza except mushroom. Noel held the door open for the rest of the group to walk into the pizza place, Cameron still explaining why she hated mushrooms so much.

“So, I was like three, at a friends house, and I tried a marshmallow. It was great! Marshmallows are good. Except I had a shitty memory even then, so I remembered the name as mushrooms. And I told my parents I tried mushrooms and loved them. My parents served mushrooms at dinner. And I tasted them, and basically went- with maybe a little less profanity- ‘WHAT THE FUCK??? THIS ISN’T A MUSHROOM!’ And eventually we figured out that I meant marshmallow. This is why I will never trust mushrooms again.”

Noel gave him a strange look. “Why are you all so opinionated on pizza? It all tastes good. Anyway, once we get to the front, I’m gonna order one third Hawaiian, one third pepperoni, and one third mushroom. And I’ll eat it all.” He paused to grin at them. “Aren’t I a good friend?”

“I’m going to set your fucking pizza on fire.”

After a lengthy debate, one that earned them strange looks from the other customers, they concluded that they’d never agree on anything other than cheese pizza. Between the four of them, it disappeared quickly, and it was time to head back to VHS. Time and time again, they narrowly avoided getting caught, but they managed eventually. Not that it was hard for Lani. Finally, they made it into their dorm room and flopped on their respective beds, laughing.

Naomi distantly thought that this was the most fun she’d had in a long time. Had she really considered missing out on this, going to a hero school, to make her parents happy? It wasn’t worth it to make her parents happy. She was happy here.

#straight a supervillain #i love these people so much #the flame with the middle finger <3 #s writes things

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