InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Feed me, Seymour!"

wantedthedevil (wantedthedevil) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2012-12-07 03:05:00

Entry tags:

adam milligan, lucifer

WHO: Adam Milligan & Lucifer (as "Lucy")
WHAT: Lucifer wants to try and be nice to Adam, but Emma threatened him with pain of death if he bothered him. So instead, he's going to do it as someone else. That doesn't count, right?
WHEN: December 7th; Afternoon
WHERE: The Local Chinese Restaurant
RATING: PG
STATUS: In Progress

It had been a matter of a few days worth of tracking, staying cloaked and just out of sight as he watched the young man get on with his business. To be fair, it wasn't really much. Apartment and food was all he seemed to do. He didn't even look to be going to visit family or really talking to anyone. That wouldn't do. It wouldn't do at all. And as Lucifer continued to watch, he had slowly devised a plan to try and at least get Adam Milligan to start breaking out of the rut he had dug for himself.

It started simple enough. Lucifer had just had to figure out which restaurant Adam was going to go to on a certain day. Following him long enough had yielded a pattern, and Fridays were almost always Chinese nights. Step two was waiting at the restaurant until his order came in, paying special attention to exactly what was on it. Step three had taken some preparation, devising an appearance that wouldn't reflect on any of the people already here that he knew of, but it had been well worth it when Lucifer... Lucy had placed an order identical to Adam's and sat down to wait for the young man to come in.

Odd little coincidences like this sparked conversations all the time, right? And no healthy young man could resist talking to a pretty young girl. Lucifer was sure that that was going to work. And maybe, once Adam had an outlet, he'd stop being so closed off from everyone else. It was a perfect plan as far as he was concerned, and he was sure it would go off without a hitch.

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wantedthedevil
2012-12-08 06:04 am UTC (link)

"Two," The woman behind the counter voiced as she produced two bagged orders, looking up at Adam with a curious yet intent expression. "You get two?" As she pushed both orders across the counter at him, Lucifer smiled to himself as he saw his opportunity, springing to his feet from where he had been sitting in the row of chairs laid out for takeout customers, before raising a hand and leaning over to attract the woman's attention.

"Oh! No! One of those is mine," He said, his now sweetly feminine voice hiking in concern before his attention turned from the woman behind the counter to Adam, a soft and sincerely apologetic smile gracing his new rounded features. It was so easy, Lucifer knew, to win a guy over with a sweet female face. Sometimes it took one that he was attached to, like it had with Nick, but for the unattached, like Adam, just anything would do as long as it was open, honest, and just understanding enough to bridge the gap between wariness and trust. "Sorry. I didn't realize someone else had the same order, or I would have been paying closer attention," He said, flashing a slightly sheepish smile before taking a step back to give Adam the room to pay.

"Go ahead. You were here first," He said, even though it wasn't entirely true since he'd been sitting there waiting. But part of him expected Adam to have picked up on that, and he might not be a Winchester in name, but he was definitely one in spirit. And honor was a part of their blood. Even when it came to the little things.

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notdewyeyed
2012-12-08 11:21 am UTC (link)

At the sound of the voice, Adam's grip on the money he was holding tightened to the point that his knuckles ached a bit. It took a few seconds, during which his heart began beating rapidly and his breathing turned shallow, before his mind finally analyzed the woman who had spoken up and deemed her not an immediate threat. Just some pretty blond who had apparently ordered the same thing he had. Slowly uncurling his hand, he swallowed down the knot of apprehension that had lodged in his throat and offered her a ghost of a smile.

"It's fine," he assured her. He resisted the urge to take her up on the offer to just buy his food and leave. He wanted to do it, wanted it more than just about anything else at the moment, but he could practically feel his mother glaring at him for the thought. And although a great deal of his humanity had been lost in the pit, Adam did still have the things his mother had told him over the years. One of the main ones being that you never, ever cut in front of a woman in line without a damn good reason to do so.

So instead of doing as the blond had suggested, Adam instead took a step off to the side. "Actually," he replied simply, "I'm pretty sure you were here when I walked in." There was no flirting to his tone, as there likely would have been before his ordeal as Michael's vessel. Although he did add on, after a pause, "I'm also pretty sure you're the only other person I've met who eats Moo Shu Shrimp with light sauce. Most people order it for the sauce alone."

Why he'd felt the need to say something more, particularly to elaborate on their identical orders like some kind of douchey tool who couldn't come up with any better line than that, Adam wasn't sure. Once the words were spoken, though, he found himself grateful that he definitely had not been attempting to flirt with her. If he had, he would have had to smack himself for resorting to such an obvious method as that.

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wantedthedevil
2012-12-11 01:18 am UTC (link)

"Well, what's the point in that?" Lucifer replied, a playful expression in his new features as he slipped forward to pay for the order. "There's no sense in getting shrimp if you can't taste them on their own. It's not like lobster where the only flavor you get with it is whatever it's stuck in," He said, taking the change that he was given and stepping back, gesturing for Adam to go ahead. There wasn't any sense in leaving right now. He'd started a conversation. Any normal person would hang around to see how it went even if there was little else holding them there now that the task had been taken care of.

"I'm Lucy, by the way," Lucifer said, figuring that the certain ease his name was translated into a girl's would actually serve him well this time. No need to make it overly complicated and try to go by some name that he might forget to respond to. His own was simple enough to remember. "Are you one of the out of towners?"

For all that most people seemed to ignore the locals or look on them as automatons -- Lucifer knew he did most of the time -- he had noted that they were more than capable of the same complex thought and relationships that everyone else here was. They just didn't tend to engage with the new recruits outside of idle interaction or if it had been already initiated by one of them. And Lucifer figured this could count as initiated. Besides, being a local was an easier cover than trying to figure out how to explain why he'd never seen her around on any of the network chats if she was from another world like him.

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notdewyeyed
2012-12-14 01:54 am UTC (link)

Although Adam agreed with the sentiment about shrimp, he didn't say anything on the subject. He simply stepped forward to pay for his own order. He ignored the knowing, encouraging smile the woman at the counter was giving him. Which was definitely a testament to how he had changed, in the Pit, considering before his life had gone literally to hell, he would have already asked the girl for her number and probably convinced her to sit down and eat their meals in the restaurant together.

Instead, Adam waited for his change then finally glanced back to the blonde when she asked him a question he couldn't ignore without being rude. "Adam," he replied. "And yeah. I'm definitely from out of town." Briefly, for a heartbeat or two at the most, he considered simply asking her one of the trigger questions that would make the local girl stop functioning just long enough that he could make his escape. Then he thought about the fact that he probably wouldn't be able to return to the restaurant if he did that, what with locals running, and owning, the place. And considering they really did have the best Chinese food in town, he wasn't about to give that up.

So he just took the food he was handed and finally turned away from the counter, to face Lucy fully. He could do this. He could have a conversation with someone, could interact with them without suffering a panic attack for his efforts or feeling an overwhelming urge to scrawl an angel banishing sigil on the wall first, just in case. He could be normal and talk to the pretty girl. He could.

Opening his mouth, now determined more than ever to fight past the apprehension that coursed throughout his entire body, he managed a somewhat curious sounding, "Is that what you all call us? The out of towners?"

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wantedthedevil
2012-12-14 03:58 am UTC (link)

"Out of towners, nonlocals, accidental tourists, there's a bunch of names that get circulated. Some not so nice ones as well," Lucifer said with a bit of a smile. He'd overheard a few discussions when he was just waiting around in places. There was a lot of problems among the local population when it come to the people who had been brought there. Dislike and distrust chiefly among these things, and while it hadn't bubbled to the suffer in awhile as Asaph hadn't given them a push in the anger department, that didn't mean it wasn't still there. "But those are mostly from people who think your presence is what brings the insanity down on this place so often. I say, even if you weren't here, we'd probably be going through the same things. Someone's got to keep him entertained."

Pausing, Lucifer smiled, allowing a slow, sweet expression to spread over his feminine features before reaching out and finger and poking Adam's arm playfully, "Don't talk to many people that aren't your own here, huh?" He asked, a bit of mirth flashing in his eyes before rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. He could only assume it was an action that looked somewhat adorable in this body since he couldn't really see himself right now. But it sure felt adorable. "It's fine. Most of you don't. I kinda think that's why we like keeping to ourselves a lot of the time. That and your tendency to appear and disappear at random. There's no stability in that at all. But, ha, I guess I don't really have to tell you that."

Pausing again, Lucifer cast a brief look at the door before turning back to Adam, "Are you in a rush?"

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notdewyeyed
2012-12-15 01:42 pm UTC (link)

Adam flinched slightly when she touched him, biting down on his tongue to keep himself from snapping at her not to touch him again. She wasn't a threat, he told himself instead. She was just some girl - a very pretty girl, in fact - who was trying to make small talk with him. In another life, in the life he'd had before he'd learned monsters did exist and things like Heaven and Hell weren't just constructs created by humans to keep their morality in check, Adam would have taken full advantage of the girl's friendly nature and be doing his best to get a date out of the random encounter. But that life was gone, now, and the Adam Milligan that had lived it was gone as well.

Still, that didn't mean he had to be rude to her or couldn't at least try to push his own limits and keep the conversation going. It would probably be good for him, especially considering the holidays were coming up and he was pretty sure Dean wasn't going to let him just sit them out. This could be sort of like practice for that, he figured. And if he screwed it up, and made an idiot out of himself, he never had to see her again. That was a big plus.

The bag of food he was holding swung slightly as Adam turned his attention to the clock above the door. He didn't have any plans, obviously. It didn't matter what time it was. But it was a good way to buy himself a few seconds to answer. Once he was sure he could speak without his voice trembling, he looked back to Lucy and managed a touch of a smile that wasn't quite as hollow as before.

"I don't have anything planned that can't wait," he said, the smile growing ever so slightly. It almost felt normal. Standing there, smiling, chatting with a pretty girl. As long as he didn't let his mind wander too much, he could almost pretend that he was normal, too.

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wantedthedevil
2012-12-16 02:37 am UTC (link)

Score. Even as little as Lucifer really knew, he imagined this was probably the closest that Adam had been to another human being who wasn't family since getting here. Even if he wasn't technically a human being, he was just playing one for the moment, this totally counted in his mind. As far as Adam knew, he was just a pretty girl with as pretty a personality who wanted to keep talking to him, and that was definitely a step in the right direction.

"I usually head down to the park to eat when it's nice out," Lucifer said with a turn on his heel as he headed over to the door and paused, sparing a glance back at Adam as he pushed it open. "You should come, too, if you don't have any place to be. It's a wonderful view," Lucifer said, flashing a confident grin and a wink. "And even better company."

Pausing as he stepped outside, he held the door as he looked back at Adam with an expectant look. It was riskier than staying inside the restaurant, asking him to come out in the open, but it wouldn't help anything if they didn't get to the very edge of where he felt comfortable. That was the only way to get past it.

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notdewyeyed
2012-12-16 06:28 am UTC (link)

For a brief moment, Adam had hoped he'd misheard the girl. Going anywhere to eat, anywhere that wasn't his apartment at least, was not something he wanted to do. Hell, even when he'd thought she was going to suggest eating there, he hadn't been certain he'd go along with it. He'd been willing to consider it, of course, but now that he knew what she wanted... no. He couldn't. He just couldn't. The thought of going somewhere with so many other people, somewhere that didn't have flat walls where he could scrawl out banishing sigils if he had to, was enough to make his breathing difficult as his mind began recoiling in horror.

"I-" Before he could immediately refuse, Adam stopped himself. A split second of hesitation as he tried to figure out a nice way to decline her offer. Then she was moving to the door, and looking at him as though she expected him to say yes, and before Adam could even think about what he was doing, his feet were following after her.

Was he still terrified at the thought of hanging out somewhere as open and vulnerable as the park? Yes. Was there still every chance he'd change his mind before they reached their destination? More than likely. But for the time being, it seemed, not even his fear and the centuries worth of damage his psyche had suffered seemed capable of standing up to one of the most powerful forces in the human body: hormones.

Stepping outside, his hand tightening around the handle on his bag of food, Adam swallowed hard as he glanced around. Then he looked to Lucy, doing his best to keep his tone even despite the fact that it was pretty obvious he wasn't terribly comfortable at the moment.

"So," he tried, pausing long enough to wet his lips before continuing. "Uh, where about in the park do you normally go?" Because maybe he'd get lucky and, when she said park, she actually meant the small gathering of picnic tables near the parking lot that led into the park. He could manage that much, he thought. Anything else, though, was going to be pushing it. And Adam wasn't sure even her good looks and perky personality would change his mind on that one.

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wantedthedevil
2012-12-16 06:50 am UTC (link)

Lucifer could see the tension that spread through Adam. While a local probably wouldn't have noticed it, the way every muscle in his body seemed to be fighting against the very things that Adam was forcing it to do, Lucifer did. It was worrying while at the same time encouraging that Adam was able to fight against his own instinctive responses to what may turn into a threatening situation. An open area with the possibility of anyone or anything coming out of anywhere. It had to be a terrifying thought to the man who had been locking himself away for weeks. Lucifer knew that a pretty face could help solve a lot of things. Even if it wasn't real.

"Just near the entrance," Lucifer said, turning to look at Adam for a moment before reaching out to cup a hand around his arm. It was a simple gesture, one that Lucifer was sure any human would make even if they weren't sure what the problem was or the extent of it, to try and offer support and comfort. Even as Adam had flinched at the smallest touch before, Lucifer figured this was worth the risk in the moment because it fit. And if he pulled away again, there wasn't any harm in it because he knew why. There wouldn't be any girly overreaction coming from him.

"The view, if you sit at the right table, spreads all the way back to the edge of the lake on the horizon," Lucifer said. "Even if you're surrounded by parking lot, it's pretty easy to pretend that you're in the midst of nature. Besides, there's not really anywhere good to sit in the actual park. Not unless you're willing to risk sitting in the wonderful leaving of nature."

And yes, sitting in poop was not really the best way to start dinner conversation, but hey, at least it was interesting.

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notdewyeyed
2012-12-16 07:06 am UTC (link)

The edge of the park, by the parking lot. Okay. Adam could handle that. True, the area was still open all around him, but at least it wasn't in the middle of the woods where he could get lost, or go missing, without anyone any the wiser. That was about as much of a plus as he was going to find, given the circumstances. And sure, he could go right ahead and say no, still, if he wanted. It wasn't as though she was forcing him to go with her or anything. But a part of him wanted to say yes, wanted to at least try to be normal for an afternoon, and that part was quickly starting to win out the more Lucy looked his way.

Of course, pretty or not, when she placed her hand on him, Adam still flinched away from the contact. He frowned a bit afterward, frustrated with his body's inability to withstand human contact, but made no apologies for having done so. Instead he just slid his free hand into the pocket of his jacket, turned his attention to the road spread out before them, and said softly, "That sounds nice." Blinking a bit, he cast a faint grin in Lucy's direction. "The place you described, not sitting in crap, obviously," he elaborated. And for that one, brief moment while doing so, he looked like his old self too.

Then it was gone, the merriment giving way to the heaviness that seemed to plague him every moment of every day, waking or not. Clenching the hand in his pocket into a fist as a means of having something to focus on to keep him in the here and now, Adam suggested, "I, uh, guess we should get going, before the food gets cold."

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wantedthedevil
2012-12-16 07:25 am UTC (link)

Lucifer didn't say anything when Adam pulled out of the touch, doing little more than cast him a quietly curious glance before sliding his hand back into his pocket and nodding at Adam's last statement, "We probably should," He said before chuckling. "Even if it still tastes good cold, in my opinion. There's no point to Chinese food if it goes off before you've had it before at least a week. It's designed for leftovers."

It was surprisingly easy, sliding into this role, even if acting like sickeningly sweet was a bit of a strain, discussing normal issues wasn't really that far off of the things he was capable of. He'd gotten rather used to Earth, what it had become, not only in his time out of the cage but in the extra time that he'd spent here. Pretending really wasn't so hard. Especially when you were just making someone up as you went.

"Obviously," Lucifer echoed with a laugh, a bit of a snort punctuating the action that he quickly covered with an embarrassed hand to the face. Not very ladylike, an action like that, and showing a little embarrassment would help sell it even more. "Sorry. Just happens sometimes," He said as they headed towards the park, shifting the hand that had covered his face to move his hair back out of his face. How did women even operate like this? It was like walking around with a curtain on your head that could fall down in front of your eyes at any second.

"Have you been here long?" He asked, the question coming quickly, as though it was meant to cover-up what had just happened. "I know it tends to vary for you guys."

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notdewyeyed
2012-12-16 07:47 am UTC (link)

Had Adam's memories not extended beyond his initial demise in his own reality, had he been the Adam who had been in pre-med, working toward becoming a doctor, he probably would have teased Lucy for her rather unladylike snorting. It would have been playful teasing, of course, and probably used as a means to break the ice between them even more, but he would have at least done something about the noise. Instead, he barely reacted externally. His gaze simply slid to her, his mouth twitching a bit at a faintly amused ghost of a smile, and then he was turning his attention right back to the sidewalk in front of them.

At her question, he hesitated. What was considered long, exactly, he wondered. Time took on a funny meaning in Lucifer's cage. Days felt as though they took weeks. Weeks tended to feel like months. And centuries... he didn't even want to think about how long it had taken for those to trickle past.

Finally, not sure whether or not his time really qualified as lengthy enough, he shrugged. "One month and twenty-six days," he replied. Thirteen hours, eighteen minutes, and forty-four seconds, he tacked on mentally. Not that he was going to tell her that. No way. Out loud, he simply added, "Not as long as some folks, I guess, but long enough to get a feel for the place."

Falling silent for a second or two, Adam realized her next question was probably going to be about where he'd come from. Considering he didn't have a cover story ready, and wasn't nearly gifted enough of a liar to come up with one on the spot, he quickly tried to think of something that would deter her. The best he could come up with on such short notice was a simple, but curious, "What about you?" Realizing he probably sounded like an idiot, considering she was a local, he elaborated, "I mean... were you born here, in the city? Or..."

Trailing off, Adam gave a sudden, sharp, humorless bark of laughter. "Man," he said with a shake of his head after a second, "I just realized how totally crap that sounded. Sorry. I just meant, I know there are some locals who show up here after others..." Die. "Leave. I wasn't sure if you were one of those or what."

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wantedthedevil
2012-12-16 08:09 am UTC (link)

"You want to know whether I'm a replacement or not," Lucifer stated simply, figuring there were probably more awkward questions that Adam could have come up with. 'What's up with that total mental shutdown you guys have?' being the chiefest among the ones that sprung into Lucifer's mind. As it was, this was a simple enough question to come up with an answer for even if Lucifer had to fabricate it out of thin air. "I've been lucky enough to avoid dying so far," He said, pausing as Lucy to rap his knuckles against a tree that they were passing.

"I don't think I was...born here. It's sort of like my memories only start at a certain point, if that makes any sense," Lucifer said, glancing over at Adam with a bit of a smile. "Not that that really makes any difference in how I live my life. History's important, but the lack or the content of it really shouldn't dictate how we live our lives. It's the now that matters, not the before or after."

Pausing as they reached sight of the park, Lucifer turned, walking backwards to face Adam with a playful expression, "And I'm rather enjoying the present," He said before turning on his heel and calling over his shoulder. "Race you the rest of the way!" before taking off.

Childish? Yes. A way to avoid Adam protesting the assertion that he'd just made? Definitely.

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notdewyeyed
2012-12-17 05:02 am UTC (link)

Once upon a time, Adam would have agreed completely with Lucy's sentiment. Growing up, he had never been one to really worry about the past or think too long on the future. Sure, he'd made plans, had worked hard in school to see them achieved, and gone off to college with an idea of what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. But aside from making sure he had the means to pay his own way in life? Yeah. He hadn't given a damn about the rest of it. What would happen when he was older, or especially once he died, had been the furthest things from his mind.

And then he'd actually died.

Yet, even then, once he was back alive once more, he really hadn't thought much beyond his desire to see his mother again. What might happen if he said yes to Michael, or what would happen if he didn't, none of it had mattered. Where he might wind up when he died again certainly hadn't registered.

Until, of course, he'd actually died... and wound up in Hell. Then, then it had mattered quite a bit. And now that he was once again alive, and he knew exactly what waited for him when he died again, Adam realized just how much the before and after really mattered. Appreciating the moment was all fine and good, of course, but making sure to learn from your mistakes, and the mistakes of others, and doing your best to live the sort of life that guaranteed you would not wind up in Hell when it was all said and done? Those things mattered more than he could ever truly express.

Nor would he get the chance to do so now, he realized as Lucy quickly made a change in the subject and challenged him to a race, of all things. Which normally might have been fine, if not for the fact that the last time Adam had run anywhere, it had been in an attempt to put as much distance between himself and the at-the-time communal housing area that all of the non-locals in Colligo had been forced to share. Before that? He couldn't even remember when he ran last. Sometime within the first decade of being in Lucifer's cage, he thought maybe, but he wouldn't swear to it. Not that it mattered, either. The point was, the idea of running now - and just because it was fun - wasn't something he was sure he was really up for doing.

Except Lucy was already running. And if Adam didn't run, she was probably going to get a little peeved. And, despite the fact that she was a local - or maybe because she was - Adam really didn't want her peeved at him. Not to mention, it wasn't like it would hurt him to race her and would be pretty rude of him if he didn't, all things considered.

Ultimately, it wasn't the thought of it being rude that made him break into a sprint to catch up with her. Instead, it was the thought of her deciding he really wasn't worth the effort she'd put into him, and him ultimately having to go home and eat his dinner alone. Which was a strange feeling to have, really, considering how not ten minutes earlier he'd wanted to do precisely that. Now that he had a choice between sharing a meal with a pretty girl, or not, though, he was definitely going with the first option. Which apparently meant having to run.

So he did. Making his legs move faster than they had since shortly after his arrival in the city, Adam gripped his bag of food tightly and slowly but surely began closing the distance between himself and Lucy. He wasn't the fastest runner in the world, and she had quite a lead already, but he managed to catch up with her just as they'd reached the parking lot. More importantly than that, though, by the time it was all said and done, and they'd reached the picnic table, Adam was smiling in a carefree sort of way that he hadn't thought himself capable of any more. Sure, he'd lost the race, but for one, brief moment, he'd also forgotten about all of the terrible things that plagued him every moment of every day. And that, alone, was well worth it.

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wantedthedevil
2012-12-20 04:40 am UTC (link)

Adam was smiling. It was the sort of thing that didn't happen often and certainly not without a really good reason, and Lucifer liked the idea that he was a good enough reason to smile for. Well, Lucy, not him, but it sort of amounted to the same thing in the end. At least, in Lucifer's mind. It was all going to work out, cure Adam of his phobia of him and teach him that there were things out there in the world that he had to be prepared to accept should they come to him. Be in a pretty girl or just the opportunity to have a bit of fun, there was no reason that he should be afraid of any of that here.

Sure, it was occasionally crazy here, sometimes even to a dangerous degree, but altogether, there was way more to embrace than there was to avoid.

"He who hesitates loses," Lucifer said with a playful grin before sticking his tongue out at Adam before plopping himself down at the closest picnic table with a laugh, making a good show of having to catch his breath as he flopped his head down on the wood. "Then again, she who throws her all into things ends up exhausted as the end of them, so I think it balances out. What do you think?" Lucifer asked, lifting his head back up and glancing back at Adam before patting the area of the bench next to him. "Come on. I'm not going to bite."

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