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Shane Marion ([info]wolfishane) wrote in [info]bellumlogs,
@ 2010-02-26 21:41:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:big bad wolf, irene adler

Who: Iris and Shane
What: Joy Yee for a tracker exchange. And food.
Where: The lobby, Joy Yee
When: This evening
Warnings: TBA? Likely none?



Originally, when Shane had withheld Iris's tracker from her, he'd been highly curious about exactly what sort of criminal activity she'd gotten up to in order to be awarded with one. Now, frankly, that curiosity had shot down his priorities list. Most of his time lately had been spent trying desperately to find Boyd, and then, after that, gone back to trying to figure out some sort of solution to the problems that had driven her from him. Every time he thought about her in the women's shelter, for wounds he'd most likely inflicted, his mood only darkened further.

He was no longer much in the mood for cat-and-mousing or digging for more information, so when Iris came down the stairs, he had the tracker in hand. If she still wanted to go out after she got it back, he'd go, if for no other reason than to keep up some vague pretense of normalcy with his new acquaintance. Otherwise, he'd be going back to his apartment.


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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 04:32 am UTC (link)
Iris had taken some time out of her busy schedule of sitting and staring at books and her blank walls to make herself look utterly harmless. She went for layers again, swept up her hair into a tail, and even put on a pair of prescription-less glasses she wore at the library to make people listen to her. She was subtle with the make-up but made sure what there was brightened her complexion, adding a few years of youth and cheer. Iris' vanity needed none of these things, of course, but it was in her best interest to make Shane Marion as convinced as possible that she was uninteresting, or at least, normal enough.

The crutches were a new feature, and as she swung down the stairs with the uncomfortable pressure of her entire weight under her shoulders, she surmised that it would, at least, assist the illusion she was trying to create.

Once she joined Shane on the floor she held out her bag for the tracker, noticing at once that he hadn't harmed it or tried to take it apart. There wasn't a way to verify it still functioned exactly the same, but she had been thinking over that problem and she almost had a solution in her grasp.

"Good evening," she told him, without any sly looks or sarcasm. She smiled. "Thank you for coming down. Are you hungry, or just indulging me?" She was hobbling away again.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 04:39 am UTC (link)
He dropped the tracker into her bag, taking her in. She looked much more unremarkable than she had the first time he'd seen her, and that seemed suspicious. He'd just discovered she'd been arrested for something, and she knew it--thus, she came to meet him trying desperately to look as run-of-the-mill as possible. If she wanted to allay his suspicions, she would have worn exactly the same sort of thing he'd seen her in last. The glasses, however, were a nice touch. "Indulging," he said, wondering at her. She wasn't even attempting to explain herself. Interesting. "But I don't mind." He looked more pulled together than he had for most of the past week, and had gone to the effort to run a comb through his hair. He couldn't bring himself to care too much about appearances lately, though, and it showed. He looked worn, a bit run down, but did what he could to banish anything Iris might notice with a small but warm smile.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 04:44 am UTC (link)
In their own fashion, then, each would acknowledge the other's valiant effort. Iris wasn't much into pretending, however, and she was almost glad she was on crutches, because she didn't have to be as careful with her tells as when she was walking or standing. "It shouldn't be too far," Iris decided, not letting him off the hook. "And I'm just picking it up. You have two extra hands." She smiled gently at him, and edged awkwardly sideways out the door. No, she was not going to show the slightest discomfort or pain on her face.

The clear, cold weather hit them both hard, and Iris took a moment to resettle her crutches under her coat arms and striped scarf. "You look tired," she said, as they set off down the block.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 05:00 am UTC (link)
He mused on why she insisted on limping out to get food. Was she that intent on talking to him, or was she really that stir-crazy? "That I do," he said. Well, he couldn't exactly let her hobble away to try to carry her food home in the cold on crutches.

Shane had worn his coat in case they did go out, and he buttoned it after holding the door open for Iris. "It's been a long week," he acknowledged, keeping pace beside her. "Will you be alright walking there?" The restaurant wasn't far, but trying to get there on an uneven sidewalk with crutches couldn't be fun, or easy.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 05:15 am UTC (link)
Iris tutted. "Probably not. If I have to rest, or fall down, you are not to tell my nosy neighbor. I don't need another mother." She was doing rather well for herself, avoiding icy patches with the crutches, planting her good foot firmly where she could, and moving along at a decent pace. A hint of hard determination was in the farthest corner of her mouth, but that was all.

"Tell me about your hard week. Mine was deadly dull."

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 05:23 am UTC (link)
He moved a little closer to her as they walked when she mentioned falling. "I didn't plan on it."

"Trouble with my work," he said. Vague, but hopefully permissible. "Have you been in the building all this time?"

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 05:32 am UTC (link)
"You told me what he said," she said, genial, easy. For Iris, silver-tongued with her acquired Galway lilt, Shane was a knot of contradictions, and she knew that confronting him was not the way to unravel them. Instead she said things just a little off-hand, without effort, appearing to concentrate the majority of her attention on her steps and her crutches. She made sure she didn't sound out of breath when she spoke. "Yes," she said, with a little sigh she didn't exaggerate but let pass her lips. "That's what I mean by dull. What do you do for a living?"

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 05:37 am UTC (link)
"He seems quite invested in your well-being." He couldn't help but wonder who he was, exactly, aside from just a nosy neighbor. A friend? A boyfriend, possibly? "I write," he said, thinking back to the last time he'd told that lie--Jude, who'd spotted the cracks in it as soon as she'd seen the calluses on his hands. They were in his pockets at the moment, so hopefully Iris didn't have the same skill of divining by the thickening of skin. "Technical work, for pamphlets and the like. It's not exciting, but it pays the bills."

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 05:47 am UTC (link)
"He does, at that," Iris replied, thoughtfully, as if she hadn't thought of it that way. (That wasn't true, of course, but there was no reason to enlighten either of these men about anything more than she had to.) Shane's hope was naturally in vain. If Shane was a writer, then he made up his spare time being a scary bastard at something else, and this Iris was sure of. "Wish I was a hand at that," Iris said, casually. "I wouldn't be out a third of the rent." The lack of ready funds was not a lie (not even close) but she could now say such things and be sure it added to her current Harmless Occupation.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 05:53 am UTC (link)
"What are you a hand at?" he asked. He doubted that would lead to any sort of confession about the origin of the tracker in her purse, but it might lend a clue. Assuming she didn't lie, which he could never really assume. He definitely wouldn't be taking anything Iris said at face value.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 06:02 am UTC (link)
"Arranging books," she smiled. "Maybe I've seen your name on one of them. I work at the Roosevelt Library." She took the excuse to stop and rest her arms, dropping one while that crutch leaned against her body and she kept her balance with the other. She pointed a mitten off into the distance toward the library. She chose not to mention the coffee house just yet; it would reveal that librarian was not her primary occupation, and she found it a useful shield in certain situations.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 06:08 am UTC (link)
"I doubt it," he said. "My work doesn't often go up with my name attached. Usually it's on the inside of brochures or how-to manuals."

He followed her gesture, looking down the street toward the library. "A librarian," he said, with a nod. "Admirable occupation." He paused. "Though that does beg the question of how you ended up with a tracker like the one you have in your bag."

He didn't really expect her to respond, but he couldn't help but ask. A librarian criminal? The idea was too outlandish to just let pass by. And the conversation was serving as an adequate distraction from his own thoughts, which was all he really wanted.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 06:15 am UTC (link)
"I was wondering when you were going to ask." Iris sighed and tucked her crutch under her arm again. She moved slower this time, taking care not to jostle against anything and focusing on the ground. "It was after I left my husband. Things weren't going so well, and I... needed to think about something that wasn't myself. I bought things, and when that became impossible, I borrowed some credit card information and kept going." She shook her hair back away from her face, working a little harder to get up a curb and pausing again to catch her breath. "Fraud, they tell me, is a federal offense."

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 06:26 am UTC (link)
He slowed his pace, sticking by her. It was a reasonable explanation, to be sure. That didn't mean he was sure he believed it, but it was reasonable. "Did you spend any time in prison?" She didn't act like she had, but Iris struck him as someone who was exceptionally good at hiding things.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 06:31 am UTC (link)
"A local one, but not for very long," she said, making sure her shoulders preceded the rest of her so her hair dropping down to hide her face was natural enough. Iris didn't offer any further explanation to this, finding it both uncomfortable and unnecessary. Sometimes you just had to leave things to lie, especially after dropping a bombshell like that. "It is not a time of my life I'm particularly proud of. I kind of hoped I could leave it behind me." Lifting her head to offer him a small, rather hopeful smile--that perhaps he would keep it to himself--and then dropping her eyes to her bag and the tracker in it. "As much as I can, anyway."

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 06:37 am UTC (link)
Shane didn't have any intention of spreading her story throughout the building. It was her business, whether she was telling the truth or not. "You can," he said. "If anything, you'll likely be known for taking such an impressive tumble down the stairs and coming out nearly unscathed."

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 06:46 am UTC (link)
She laughed, "Unscathed!" Her answering warmth was very grateful, augmented by her obvious relief they had arrived at their destination. Iris was a strong woman in excellent shape, and she could hold her own weight very well, but she hadn't been a cat burglar for a long time, and the crutches were a little much. She stood back to let Shane get the door as the smell of sizzling soy sauce came out strong onto the sidewalk and into the pores. Mm, Iris thought, dryly. MSG. It was a long way from San Francisco's China Town.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 06:50 am UTC (link)
"I said nearly," he said with a small smile. He held the door open for her, following after once she was fully inside. "You didn't break your neck or your back, and you'll be fully recovered in a couple weeks. Unscathed, as far as falls down the stairs go."

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 06:57 am UTC (link)
"You're quite the spot of sunshine," she said, after she had told them her order and produced a few folded bills in small denominations to pay for it with exact change. The crutches were a little slick on the tile floor after the sidewalk, but she managed her way to the nearest table, where she hopped around and into place. Some of the tenseness around her eyes smoothed out as she sat down, but there was no other visible sign of relief. "You still haven't told me what went so wrong with your week."

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 07:04 am UTC (link)
He sat down across from her to wait out her food. "Work stress, as I said. I nearly didn't get a piece of writing in to one of my employers. Then, when he got it, he decided he didn't like it, so I didn't get paid." The lie rolled off his tongue as easily as truth, rueful. It was like spinning out a fantasy--how nice life would be if getting a piece of writing in on time was the full span of his worries.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 07:07 am UTC (link)
He was good. Not as good as she was, of course, but still--very good. Iris nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's rough. Funny how the little things can get to you." She sipped on a cup of water she'd requested from the employee, who probably never bothered to actually pour for anybody until Iris, of the crutches, becoming smile and alluring scent through the soy sauce, asked him for it. "No way to vent? Girlfriend? Boxing partner?" She smiled.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 07:15 am UTC (link)
Not a flicker at the mention of a girlfriend. Clearly Iris either hadn't checked the old anonymous posts, or she was just new enough not the really be involved in the rumor mill yet. "No girlfriend," he said, with the same small smile. "No boxing partner, either. Maybe I ought to get one."

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 07:19 am UTC (link)
Oh, any time anyone thought to themselves, 'perhaps she didn't check' or 'perhaps she didn't notice' or 'perhaps she might not care,' that was usually when Iris was being her most machinating. She wanted to get a rise out of this man and see how he reacted to things unawares. He was too controlled, and she was too experienced to be reassured by that. "Something to vent. You're all tensed up, and all we did is walk down the road," Iris said, lightly.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 07:22 am UTC (link)
Iris had no idea what he had to vent. For the better, really. "Am I?" he said, a touch of sheepishness there, as if she'd found him out. "I didn't know it was that easy to tell."

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 07:25 am UTC (link)
"Oh, it's not." She couldn't crack that without revealing too much. "All librarians do all day is watch people over our glasses." She did this now, tipping her chin down and eying him over the dark slim rims, just to show him how it was done. The smile was coy, and the scent strong, but it didn't last for but a moment. Her number was called, and she fumbled with the bit of paper to check. "That's me." She rose too quickly, intent on retrieving her food before one of the other customers retrieved it for her and headed out the door--slipped on the slick tile again, and tipped dangerously to one side.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 07:28 am UTC (link)
Shane got up when Iris's number was called, planning on taking the bags from the counter for her, and managed to be just within reach when she slipped. He grabbed her by the arm, catching her her against him. The scent from the moment before came back full force, and made him pause, briefly but still a moment longer than normal, before letting go. "Are you alright?"

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 07:43 am UTC (link)
Iris' breath wooshed out of her all at once as he halted her fall and the crutches clattered to the table behind her. She had a split second to decide whether or not she wanted to pick his pockets, because she would risk discovery both taking the contents and returning them on the sly. This she could do (with some effort, of course) but in that moment, as the ghosts of her fingers moved over the outside hem of his pocket, she changed her mind. The potential gain wasn't worth the risk.

Her glasses had slid down her nose and she looked a little rattled at the near fall, but she caught his elbow and pulled herself back upright. She made the Ireland a little thicker: "Peaches. Thank you." She returned to standing, a little breathlessly, pushing her glasses back into place.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 07:47 am UTC (link)
Shane picked up her crutches and gave them back to her, making sure she was stable on them before he shifted her weight off him. "You wouldn't want to sprain the other one," he said, picking up her bags from the counter, glad to get a little distance between them. If he noticed the fingers edging toward his pocket and then away, he didn't let on.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 07:52 am UTC (link)
"No, I wouldn't." She reached out as he backed away, caught his arm at the tail end of what seemed to be an awkward pat of thanks, but ended up in a trail of fingers down his forearm. No technical writer without some significant hobbies had an arm like that. It pleased her that she had been wise enough to restrain herself. If he was as good as she thought he was, then he wouldn't have anything in his pockets to implicate him anyway. "Have you managed the food?" She was replacing her crutches, and her arms protested.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 07:58 am UTC (link)
"I have," he said. He seemed not to notice the fingers down his arm. He held the door for her yet again.

"Where are you from, originally?" He was curious how she would answer, again because he wasn't sure he'd believe her no matter what she said.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 08:01 am UTC (link)
"Here, if you can believe it," she said, as satisfied as she could be with the conversation. "My mother came over from Ireland to marry my father. They moved when I was still young, but it's all very romantic, still." She gave him an indulgent smile. "What about you? Family?"

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 08:09 am UTC (link)
He nodded, smiling slightly. "My parents moved here when my mother was pregnant with me. I've never actually been back. Have you?"

Shane did everything within his power to minimize his accent, often erasing it to the point of invisibility. It had started as effort--now it was habit, and he rarely dropped into it even if he was upset. The fact that Iris had even noticed said she was a cut above the crowd when it came to observation, and that, if nothing else had indicated as such, meant he needed to keep a closer eye on her.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 08:24 am UTC (link)
"I did," she said, with some enthusiasm even as they stepped out into the brisk cold. "During my honeymoon. It was absolutely breathtaking. So green." She paused to wait for the glaring cat eyes of traffic to screech past, then swung lightly from the curb. "It was like my mother was there with me. Probably just the accent. She gave it to me, it was something else when I was younger."

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 08:39 am UTC (link)
"I'd like to go someday," he said. "See it, if only once."

"I got mine from my father," he said. Not entirely a lie. The accent actually came out of his childhood growing up there. What little Irish gaelic he knew, however, had come from his father. Mostly curses. "My mother's accent was never as strong. She wasn't born in the country."

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 08:56 am UTC (link)
"Oh, mom's was," ah, she thickened the accent up, natural, tilting her chin to think of it, "She would talk like the isle's own daughter for miles. Nobody could understand a word half the time."

Now at the door to Bellum, she turned to him, smile still warm. "You should go," she told him, earnestly. "As you said, at least once. You wouldn't believe how moist it is there, you can practically drink the air above the grass."

She paused, indulgently, then said softly, "You mother has gone on, I assume?" She picked up on the past-tense.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 09:13 am UTC (link)
He smiled when she spoke of her mother, unthinking, uncalculated. It made him think of his own mother, the real one, who'd been Irish to her core in reality and had a thicker accent than his father.

"Maybe I will, if I can manage to get paid for my work every once in a while," he said, slipping back into the comfortable web of lies making up the fake life he'd put forward to her.

He hadn't even thought about it. Damn. He'd been so busy paying attention to her, listening to her accent for a hint of anything faked, that he'd forgotten the most basic of all the lies he usually told about his family. "She has," he said. "A few years back."

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 06:12 pm UTC (link)
Oh, Shane. Nothing Iris did was unthinking or uncalculated. She made mistakes, like the next person, but usually they were mistakes in judgment rather than involuntary action. There were some things, she knew, she could not hide, but those things were few indeed, and the biggest one she was almost sure she had a hold on. "Sorry to hear it." She paused, sighed. "I still pick up the phone sometimes before I remember."

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 06:14 pm UTC (link)
He glanced over. As with almost everything else she'd said in this conversation, he still wasn't sure whether or not to believe her. "Me too," he said. The statement was a lie, but the sentiment behind it was genuine enough to make it sound real. He held the door open for her, his back against it as he held the bags.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 06:30 pm UTC (link)
She hobbled inside, and did not press him for further details of his family or origins as they got up to the second floor and to her door. Iris was in no hurry. She knew she would be in this building for some time in the foreseeable future (if all went well), and Shane's little knots could wait. Making herself even more suspicious only for the sake of her own curiosity and sense of security would be very foolish indeed. She must do something about the tracker... later. First she needed to sit down.

At her door, she recovered the bags from him and hung them over her wrist so that she could shoulder her way in. The door stopped short at about 10 inches of its own accord thanks to some device or stop on the other side, allowing her plenty of room to maneuver in while there was nothing to see on the other side. "Thank you for the company," she said, deliberately avoiding the subject that had brought them together.

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 06:35 pm UTC (link)
He watched her slide in through the gap with a small, incredulous smile. There was security, and there was paranoia. Iris obviously didn't even want him seeing what was just beyond her front door. He grabbed one of the bags when a carton inside began to slide, righting it on her wrist before backing up and watching her disappear through the gap.

"Any time," he said, doing her the courtesy of not mentioning it either.

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[info]nightmrholmes
2010-02-27 06:40 pm UTC (link)
Iris? Paranoid? Well... perhaps. There was paranoid, and there was private. The more Occupations she had available to her, the better off she was, and revealing the apartment (which she was loathe to do anyway, out of some sense of pride or shame, she was sure) would limit her options. It would probably help the Harmless that she was going for, but she didn't want to take it too far. Iris put the bags down behind the door and caught her weight with her hand on the wall to close it behind her. Her ankle was throbbing like the devil, and she was going to have to find some ice. It made her think of Micah and the various ways he would be able to say 'I told you so.' She wasn't sure yet if she could trust Shane's discretion (Micah had a silly male objection to him, and it was beside the point entirely), but she would find out. "Good night."

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[info]wolfishane
2010-02-27 06:46 pm UTC (link)
She looked exhausted from the walk, and he pulled back a step, readying to walk upstairs. "Goodnight," he said, giving her a nod through the door, then walked away.

Iris continued to be a mystery. He wasn't sure if he bought her librarian job or her accent or her family history or her reason for being arrested. But that only served to make her more of a puzzle.

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