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Derrick Stiles ([info]derrystiles) wrote in [info]renascentyears,
@ 2008-05-12 17:42:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:*week-004, aston-parkinson, derrick-stiles, isaac-hawthorne, lily-potter, mischa-mitchell, scorpius-malfoy, shinobu-suzuki

Characters; All Prefects
Date/Time; Sept. 12th, after dinner.
Where; Muggle studies classroom
Warnings; There should be none
Status; Just startin'



Derrick stepped light down the stairs, pausing on the last step Derrick frowned, the staircase had one less step, if he continued he would step down with the wrong foot. Deciding against fighting with himself he switched his feet quickly and continued on his way. The castle always seemed to makes things interesting for him every year. Turning the corner he swallowed, his pace slowed. He shouldn't be worried, Isaac set him straight yesterday. He needed to talk to Mischa, and it should be a good turnout. Still didn't make it easier for him, he wasn't used to this.

Pushing the door open he peered into the classroom, it was deserted which was good. He had wanted to be the first one here. Casually making his way to the front Derrick hopped up onto the desk, he wasn't getting comfortable for a long meeting. He planned on making this quick and to the point, accept any questions from the prefects and then get out before it was too late to get Mischa alone.

He wasn't distracted, not at all. Oh Merlin let this go well... Derrick tossed his elastic ball from hand to hand as he waited. He hoped the prefects showed, it would be bad on their part if they didn't.

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[info]ssuzuki
2008-05-12 05:43 pm UTC (link)
In a bad mood since the announcement of the teams, Shin was looking decidedly sulky as he walked to the Muggle Studies classroom. Of all the people to get stuck in a team with, he had to get landed with Lily Potter! He could tolerate her in small doses, but working with her? That was going to be an endurance test!

Reaching the Muggle Studies classroom, Shin exhaled slowly and forced a more pleasant expression on his face before opening the door. Seeing Derrick there, he actually managed to smile properly. "Hullo."

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[info]mischa_machelle
2008-05-12 06:46 pm UTC (link)
Mischa scuttled in just after Shin, catching his hello to Derrick, who else? She had forced herself to go to her two classes before ducking back up to her dorm for the remainder of the day. She'd been skillfully avoiding the commons and the great hall for the entire weekend. She knew she looked a right mess. Her hair was unkempt, her cheeks were splotchy and her eyes were still a bit red and puffy. Her robes were messy, she'd missed a button at the bottom of her blouse. Still, she was a Prefect, no matter that she didn't really look like one. She sincerely hoped that Lily Potter would show up soon. She had been so nice in the last few days, despite her normally slightly obnoxious behavior.

Without a word, she passed like a ghost behind Shin and retreated to the furthest back desk she could risk, which was luckily a bit in the shadows. She sat down with an unlikely silence and put her head down on her arms, long blond hair spilling around her like a shade. Maybe no one would notice her...however, it wasn't likely.

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[info]ellpea
2008-05-12 08:03 pm UTC (link)
Mischa's prayers were answered; Lily was the next one to prance in, and boo to anyone who'd expected her to be late. Whatever she did, Lily wanted to be the best at it- and though she hadn't asked to be a Prefect, well, this was no different.

The redhead glanced around the classroom, her eyes landing on the blonde in the back. Poor Mischa; she looked like hell, really. Lily couldn't imagine being that far gone over some stupid boy; for all her flirtations, she'd never actually seriously fancied anyone. Still, she could sympathize, and she had a soft spot for the overly-sweet, easy-to-tease Hufflepuff. Making a beeline for the older girl, Lily thought for a moment before perching on the other girl's desk, half-blocking her from view of the rest of the room. No need for everyone to see Mischa looking like someone had just died. "Hey, you," she said fondly, ignoring both Shin (stupid, stupid Shin) and the Head Boy in favour of being comforting. "You look a bit like you could do with another patented Lily Potter hug, yeah?"

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[info]thorneroad
2008-05-12 08:09 pm UTC (link)
Isaac, on the other hand was neither in a bad mood about the teams (yet) and had no other issues to be hiding between trees by the lake or in his room for, strode into the classroom cheerily with his head high a few minutes after Mischa.

"Good evening, everyone." He nodded to the four others in the room before making his way over to the far right of the classroom. He choose to sit right on top of a desk with a scratchy heart engraving and leaned back comfortably against the wall. It was only after he got settled did he pick up on the sombre mood of the room and remembered his conversation with Derrick yesterday concerning a pretty blonde that was also in said room.

So that explained the quiet. "So... I hope it's not another leaking toilet on the agenda," was his lame attempt at a conversation starter. Anything to get the awkward silence over with.

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[info]mischa_machelle
2008-05-12 08:18 pm UTC (link)
Mischa was thanking whatever higher beings there were out there when Lily showed up, situating herself right in front of her. She lifted her head and wiped away a few fresh tears, nodding in a shamefully pitiful manner. She wrapped her arms around the red-head, one of the last people she would have thought she would seek comfort from before the weekend. It seemed that being in the room with Derrick was only making things worse. Still, hugs made everything a little better, though not completely, not by a long shot. She wondered briefly how fast she could get out of the meeting afterwards. There was probably a good chance that she could just bolt.

"He's in here," she whispered remorsefully, knowing that it was so low only Lily would be able to distinguish it. She hated how weak this had made her.

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[info]ssuzuki
2008-05-12 09:08 pm UTC (link)
Shin had noticed Mischa and was just about to go over and offer a comforting word when Lily arrived. His irritation with the new prefect was mollified when he noticed her efforts to help Mischa and Mischa responding. He wouldn't have expected those two to connect, but he was glad for the sake of his Hufflepuff friend and smiled slightly in the direction of the two girls. He had no idea what Mischa's problem was but he suspected it wasn't illness, at least not in the medical sense.

Blinking at Isaac's comment, Shin gamely picked up the topic. "I should hope not!" he said with feeling. "Once was enough. We should discuss some of the reactions to the team allocations though. There have been some nasty remarks flying around already."

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[info]ellpea
2008-05-12 09:21 pm UTC (link)
At that, Lily glanced around the room quickly, noting the present boys. Issy had only just come in, and besides, if it were him, she'd have heard something from Nunnally; and Shin was so not worthy of tears like this. Which left Derry Stiles, head boy himself. Hmm.

"Don't worry," she told Mischa, voice low, returning the hug firmly. "You don't need to talk to him, or even look at him. I'll stick by you for the whole time. If anyone you don't want to see even glances over here, I'll keep them away. Ok? Dry your eyes, love, I promise it'll turn out."

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[info]mischa_machelle
2008-05-12 10:22 pm UTC (link)
Mischa nodded glumly, wondering just how long she could stick it out. Perhaps it wouldn't turn out to be quite as painful as she'd pictured it with Lily at her side, "Okay, Lily...thank you," she wasn't sure if she'd really thanked the girl before, but she should have. Lily couldn't possibly have any idea how much Mischa appreciated the helping hand. Of course, Lily couldn't know that her promises would come true. Only Derrick could truly restore their friendship, but at this point, it was more than Mischa dared to hope for.

She tried to give a light chuckle, whispering, "It wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't my best friend, too." Losing him was utterly devistating...

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[info]derrystiles
2008-05-12 11:13 pm UTC (link)
Derrick was pleased to see them all slowly filter in, and despite how much Mischa had not wanted to be seen he had seen her. He saw how everything about her pointed to her not being happy, he felt horrible. Chewing his lip and looked down at the chair that his feet here firmly placed on, he is such a git. If she didn't want to talk to him he would totally understand, he didn't deserve even a minute of her time.

At Isaac's voice Derrick looked up with a relief filled smile. "No toilet messes, if there is another one I may have to walk out of here." Hearing Shin's comment he nodded, he was right on track. "And the Challenge teams is exactly why this meeting was called."

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[info]aparkinson
2008-05-12 11:23 pm UTC (link)
Aston entered after the first few, as he wasn't accustomed to arriving first especially for a prefect meeting that he didn't care so much about. What was Derrick going to say that hadn't been said before back when they were sixth year or fifth year prefects? Really, it was a rather waste of time, but if they had to muddle through it just to welcome the new fifth year prefects, so be it.

He took a seat towards the aisle, and just waited for the rest. It was really too bad they couldn't dock points from each other -although he could figure it was because then no one would have any points left over- or give each other detentions since certain prefects were rather uncivilized in their manners, because he would have had no problems doing it. Half the lot were rather useless in his opinion, and he knew there was no love lost between them.

And what was Hawthorne saying about a toilet? Merlin's balls, did he really need to be present for this. He simply raised an eyebrow, crossed his arms, and settled into his chair. The sooner this thing started, the faster they'd get out.

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[info]thorneroad
2008-05-13 12:17 am UTC (link)
How sweet, the two girls would get together to whisper about secret things while the rest of the guys were talking about toilets. He heaved an inner sigh and sat up properly from the wall just as Aston, no, Peony entered. He smirked a salutation to the Slytherin before returning his attention properly to the Head Boy.

They were still short a few Prefects, but it was on their heads for being late so there was no reason why they should wait for them any longer. "What about the Challenge teams? Are we expected to play a role in them?" Being in a position to dictate was fun, being told to clean up or supervise was much less so.

"And what's this about getting nasty?" He turned to Shin curiously, Isaac hadn't personally saw anything that required intervention yet, though he was already exasperated with at least one member on his team. "Is it someone on your team?" He couldn't quite recall who was on which team aside from his own at the moment.

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[info]ssuzuki
2008-05-13 12:22 am UTC (link)
Shin couldn't help glancing at Lily before his gaze returned to Isaac. He'd seen Lily's comments to Druella as well as Lydia's. "Hopefully it'll settle down, but there have been a few people reacting badly after finding out who they're teamed up with... some insults flying back and forth," he deliberately didn't say who was involved.

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[info]derrystiles
2008-05-13 01:01 am UTC (link)
Derrick gave a nod in Parkinson's direction, not much else was to be said to the guy, he never involved himself much with this stuff. Turning back to Shin and Isaac he listened to them. It was true, when he'd seen the teams he had picked out several conflicts at first glance. The profs may have seen this as an opportunity to try and get rid of the differences, Derrick saw it as potentially doing the opposite.

As usual Shin kept names to himself, it seemed to be an annoying habit of his as far as Derrick was concerned, but as usual he ignored it and moved on. "I figured it would get messy, what with the teams that have been made up. Aside from discussing the problems within the teams I've also been asking the profs for any information we as prefects can have to help with the Challenges."

Looking at the others he decided to continue, even with some of the prefects being somewhat isolated. "I managed to get a good amount of information, aside from the challenges themselves seeing as how that bit of information would put us ahead of the other students."

"There are six teams in total, which I am sure you have noticed. The lower years are not to be involved in the challenges, they are strictly going to be spectators in any of the challenges that will prove to be an entertaining show. The challenges will be once a month, and will be challenging skills that we have learned in school so far. The older years will have to cover the higher level knowledge that the younger students may not know, which is part of the challenge itself apparently." He shifted into a comfier posistion then continued.

"The challenges them selves, what information I was given about them was abstract but I did get some hints. They are going to be from one extreme to the next, some involving physical activities like swimming or flying. Others will fall into potions work, word puzzles, or something completely out of the norm. Some we will receive hints at the beginning of the month, others we won't. I also got the feeling that some will require us as a team to pick out the teammate that is best suited for the challenge. So this is where we come in, we are supposed to try and keep the conflicts in our teams to a minimum, encourage them to get to known each other. The profs figured since it will benefit us to succeed in doing this we will try harder to do it."

With that long speech spilled out he leaned back onto his hands. "Now that I have that said, is there any questions? I will try to answer them all, also if there is any suggestions. I am opening this to a discussion, it would be constructive if you all gave some sort of feed back." He flashed a dry look at Parkinson, well maybe not all.

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[info]blond_ambitions
2008-05-13 06:53 am UTC (link)
Scorpius let himself into the room quietly. He'd been running on time, really he had, but then a slytherin first year had distracted him somewhat and now it seemed many of the prefects were already present. Cursing inwardly he slunk to a free seat just as Derrick began talking about the interhouse challenges. He listened intently to all that was said, making a mental note of everything. It was good to hear a little more about what the challenges would entail.

He scanned the room and felt his curiosity perk when he noticed Lily was sporting a split lip. How on earth had she got that? He wanted to ask, but knew he'd have to wait for the question and answer session to be over and done with first.

He did have a question, although he wasn't sure if this was one of those instances where half the room would want to hex him down for prolonging the meeting, still... "Derrick, do you know if the staff will be taking into account what weeks we have assignments set before giving us the interhouse tasks. It'd be helpful if they actually communicated with each other over deadlines, it's bad enough getting a load of homework set at the same time, but if we have these challenges clashing with it too..."

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[info]derrystiles
2008-05-13 08:22 pm UTC (link)
Derrick's eyes moved over to Scorpious, when had he slipped in? Not that Derrick minded, it was for the better since he was too easily distracted the past few days. He Thought over the question before answering, trying to remember exactly what all the profs had said to this particular question. Since he had posed it to them as well.

"In most cases they said that they will be, but all of the profs made sure to point out that our work load will not be lighter than previous years. What they mean is that fifth years will have just as much work as what the current sixth years had last year. They promised to adjust deadlines to work around the Challenges, they also said that certain assignments may be beneficial to finish before the challenge." That final hint was a slip on Professor Sprouts part. She was quite uppity after she had said that, shooing Derrick away quickly before shutting the greenhouse door in his face.

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[info]puppeteer
2008-05-13 10:31 pm UTC (link)
Druella had begun the year off with a tardy streak - not that she even wanted to be in attendance at this meeting. How different could it be than any other years? Guidelines laid out, meeting of new prefects and blah blah blah... It was all so pointless. She regretted not bringing omnioculars to the first meeting and putting it on replay the following years had she forgotten any of the "vital" points of the meeting. And now she had to sit and pretend not to seethe as Miss Head Girl made her speech. That should have been her. Everyone knew it! Well, Aston did. And who else mattered anyway?

Slipping in quietly didn't seem to cross her mind as she pushed through the Muggle Studies (ew, who suggested they meet there?) classroom door and took her seat on a desk (not before sending a greeting smile to Aston, of course). She crossed her legs neatly and leaned back, apparently attentive but with no intention of apologizing. It took a moment to understand what was going on and when she did understand, it took all she could do not to roll her eyes. But of course! Team challenges - nifty little idea, wasn't it?

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[info]ssuzuki
2008-05-13 10:51 pm UTC (link)
Shin was just about to ask the same question as Scorpius when the Slytherin beat him to it. He grimaced slightly at Derrick's reply, but wasn't surprised either. "As the ones responsible for keeping conflicts to a minimum, it falls on us to lead by example then," he remarked. "By being civil and cooperative to everyone on our own team, even if we don't usually get along."

Of course, Shin was referring to himself as much as everyone else and anyone who knew he and Lily didn't get along well would know it.

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[info]derrystiles
2008-05-13 11:02 pm UTC (link)
Derrick chose to ignore Druella's entrance, he never got along with her much either. So instead he kept his attention where it was better accepted, and Shin was stating a very important point. "That is exactly what the profs want of us, we have to be the bigger people in the group. It will probably take work, not everyone will take a quiet example. In fact I am sure we will all probably have to raise our own voices a few times before any of us are heard and hopefully understood."

Derrick looked about, seeing there were any other potential questions. So far there was one... better than nothing.

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[info]aparkinson
2008-05-14 12:55 am UTC (link)
Aston snorted, shaking his head at the entire conversation. "This just spells disaster," he said clearly and plainly. "There are what? Six teams? And there are 24... well, 26 of us, and knowing McGonagall, we'll be split four to five per team and we won't be paired or grouped together with our fellow housemates, not even for complimentary leadership capabilities."

He raised an eyebrow at the farce of it all and continued. "We won't have to worry about dissension among the lower ranks when we're going to have it plainly in our levels, and that will just trickle down into discord for the entire team." he rolled his eyes, "Especially when we all have our own styles of management, and can't come to any agreements."

He let out a breath. "At least, here we can talk and argue and compromise or whatever, but out there," he chucked his thumb towards the corridors indicating the rest of Hogwarts, "There will be power struggles, and butting heads, and that's not the rest of the team, but us. Especially if one person says one thing and another contradicts him or her in front of their entire team." He looked exasperated. "Disaster in the making."

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[info]mischa_machelle
2008-05-14 01:53 am UTC (link)
Mischa had sat silently listening the the discussion thus far, but she wasn't in a good mood to begin with, and all the talk of not being able to compromise and get along was wearing her down? Why couldn't they get along? Wasn't it their duty to be accepting of differences and help everyone to pull together as much as they possibly could?

"I beg to differ," she said soft but clear, her voice carried like always, even though it wasn't particularly loud. She was sure everyone coud hear her, "I think there's every possibility of getting along with one another if we make a conscious effort to be tolerant of the different ideals and opinions of our team mates and choose to settle them civilly rather than it escalating into an arguement. There will always be a way to come to an agreement to accomodate some aspects of everyone's values. We need to work to consult one another in our personal teams, to prevent any discrepancies and take it from there. I realise that some fights will be inevitable, because some people refuse to accept anything that varies from their strict individual connotation, but this has the potential to be a rewarding experience if we only let it be as such. If you look at it from an optimistic point of view, it hardly looks like a disaster. We need to embrace the differences of our teammates rather than pointing them out and bickering over them. I think we can help everyone to settle down if we start with a possitive outlook in here and bring that sort of attitude out there," like Aston, she gestured outside.

She surprised herself for being so bold, but it was her personal opinion, and Aston was on her team. If he took the attitude that it was a lost cause to even try, it would get them no where. She didn't really know Aston, she'd merely heard of him, sat with him in prefect meetings and classes, but she'd never spoken directly to him. She didn't want him to think she was being rude, but her opinion was now out on the subject. It sickened her that some people would take a step toward violence rather than compromise.

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[info]ssuzuki
2008-05-14 03:01 am UTC (link)
"Well said, and I agree," Shin shot Mischa a reassuring smile. Parkinson was typical of the sort of person Shin personally felt was a mistake to appoint at a prefect. "Scorpius and Lily are on my team and I'm sure we three can come to an accord without descending into childish bickering," he was fairly sure Scorpius would be all right, Lily was more of a wild card but Shin counted on her desire to win to make her more willing to cooperate with him.

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[info]blond_ambitions
2008-05-14 10:27 am UTC (link)
Scorpius winced inwardly at Derrick’s reply, but it wasn’t the head boy’s fault-he was just the messenger. Still, between homework and challenges his chances of practicing his quidditch skills in a desperate attempt to make the team next year to shut his father up were looking slim. "Thanks Derrick" he murmured, trailing off and rolling his eyes as Druella sauntered in as loudly as possible it seemed; she really was something.

He turned his attention back to the meeting soon enough, surprised to hear Mischa speak up to Ashton like that. His own personal view fell somewhere in the middle of both of them. He’d been lucky enough to be on a team with people he would be willing to compromise with, but if you had a rough team it was going to be hard to smile and be all politeness.

As Shin spoke up Scorpius gave him a nod in confirmation that he had no intentions or arguing, of winning yes, of arguing no. Once more he felt grateful for his team, as long as none of them pissed Lily off they should be fine.

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[info]aparkinson
2008-05-14 05:42 pm UTC (link)
It was disaster in the making, and Aston couldn't wipe the exasperation off of his face. He voiced his opinion because it was a prefect meeting and they were all supposed to be equal in terms of power and influence, although personally he never felt that was the case as it usually turned into a head-butting us versus them mentality. They often talked about compromise and tolerance but that was usually between the three houses excluding Slytherin. No, they were quick to judge Slytherin as the evil house or the prejudiced house or the elite house but by doing that, they were guilty of all those qualities themselves. For how could they possibly be tolerant and accepting to everyone while outcasting a fourth of Hogwarts on the basis that they didn't understand them?

"I am being realistic," Aston said, narrowing his eyes. "We -as prefects- don't get along with each other as well as McGonagall would hope, and I am saying that that is what will carry over to our teams. You claim to want to make a 'conscious effort to be tolerant of different opinions,' but you're not listening to me. With the way the teams are divided, we have several people in each team who are leaders in their own right but who may not have the same ideals about leadership. Like a Hydra... the heads will bicker with each other, and that is never good for the rest of the team. I am not talking about the other members of the team; yes, we should all respect their opinions and ideas; but I was referring to us as leaders. It's hard enough coming to a general consensus here -which usually isn't even a consensus as it is a 'who cares? do what you want to do because you're not going to take my view into account'- how do we expect to come to an agreement out there? And before we talk to our respective teams. No team wants two or four leaders who constantly argue with each other."

He didn't know Mischa well either, but he respected her for voicing her opinion. It was supposed to be an open-air prefects meeting, wasn't it? But if she decided to form her own opinion of him, however skewed or inaccurate it might be, he had no problems with that. It wouldn't be anything new, and it wasn't his life's mission to correct the beliefs people had towards anything related to the Slytherin house.

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[info]thorneroad
2008-05-15 02:13 am UTC (link)
Was it very bad that Isaac was slightly amused by the disagreements being presented in the meeting? No, Aston was right, them as prefects never got along as a whole but everyone tried to play civil where it counted, right? Trust a Slytherin to pull out a serpent analogy. He had, admittedly, zoned out during the latter half of the discussion but if they were talking about a group of people with different personalities getting along… well, Isaac could add a few words to that train.

"Come on now, Peony," he used the nickname he always had for Parkinson, "If world leaders, government officials, officers of charities, organizations and whatever can all get along where it counted then I'm sure a bunch of students can for the sake of winning." If not, that was no lost to him. It was ultimately a challenge and a competition and Isaac would enjoy the feeling of winning. "Everyone will have their own style of leadership and group bureaucracy, yes. Will it be chaos, quite possibly by the sounds of it," he eyed Shin, remembering his earlier comment about nasties flying about, "but I think you're misunderstanding, we are not automatically leaders in our teams either so it's not like we are going to lead by examples. Some groups might actually be able to pull off a utopian approach to all this or elect co-leaders or whatever."

He shrugged, "the purpose of sharing ideas is to help each other find solutions, right? Well, my solution to your dilemma would be that if members of your group are refusing to play nice with each other then remind them that they'll be the ones to make the team come in last. No one likes being the loser, which at least should motivate them to try and be civil." And if not, he highly doubted the other members of the team would sit back and do nothing. Honestly, Isaac wasn't sure where Aston's pessimistic point of view was coming from.

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