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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:if you want edgy pokemon there's no shortage of absolutely godawful romhacks based on that theme. Yeah. Or hell there's Digimon which has the monsters talking and often has more serious themes from what I've heard. Also not arena based.
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May 17, 2024 08:03
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The Lone Badger posted:Most of the time when I see non-edge Pokemon it’s set up as ‘pokemon actually really like fighting and getting stronger, and go with trainers voluntarily because a good trainer can make them very strong and get them lots of good fights’. Ethical dog-fighting with informed consent. See now your posts on this are actually funny. I also enjoyed the one about keeping it behind closed doors.
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May 17, 2024 08:16
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There really isn't enough keeping monsters in pockets for my tastes. They stick them on belts or (god forbid) let them roam around like heathens. 3/10, would not recommend.
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May 17, 2024 08:42
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new thresholder opening strong. “gently caress, gently caress, what the gently caress March, what the gently caress,” Perry said as he sprinted. “Why would you do that?” “I’ve taken the liberty of ending the monarchy, sir,” said Marchand.
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May 17, 2024 12:09
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I am very easily amused. e: “No,” said Perry through grit teeth. “That’s not how monarchy works. The death of a king isn’t the death of the monarchy, there are always heirs, a line of succession. He had three children, all old enough to rule.” There was a brief pause, then the image of the castle appeared on the screen with three red dots placed in different positions.
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May 17, 2024 12:10
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Marchand absolutely rules. Probably one of my favorite sidekicks in recent memory.
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May 17, 2024 17:51
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90s Cringe Rock posted:I am very easily amused. March was hilarious this chapter, I love it. You forgot to quote the part where March says that Perry should be ok with killing them since they're adults, given Perry's reticence towards killing children. Also this quote just after: quote:“We need to kill Third Fervor,” said Perry. “Then either the portal opens or it doesn’t, and maybe to get it to trigger we’d need to kill … I don’t know. Nima. Kill Nima, I guess, even if she doesn’t really deserve it, she’s just in over her head. Or kill Fenilor, or …” He sighed, but it came out more like a hiss.
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May 17, 2024 18:11
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Marchand is the best character in Thresholder, which is good, because Perry kinda sucks. But his supporting cast makes up for that.
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May 17, 2024 18:32
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I couldn't keep going back and quoting more Marchand. That would be silly. If Marchand had a body, Perry would have glared at it. “You know what I think?” asked Perry. “I think you overstepped your bounds, and you knew you were overstepping your bounds. You knew I wasn’t on board with the killing of monarchs, and that I might have stayed in his castle for a few days trying to learn what I could, and you just personally didn’t like that, so you went ahead and asked an ambiguous question so you could get an ambiguous answer that you could justify as being my agreement with that course of action.” “It’s an interesting theory, sir,” said Marchand. “However, as an artificial intelligence, I don’t have internal motivations like a human would, and I am constrained entirely by my mission in any case. Of course I do believe that bringing about the end of the institution of monarchy is a moral good, but I would never allow my understanding of right and wrong to dictate my actions.”
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May 17, 2024 21:57
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Only 15 chapters of https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/86267/farmer-mage so far, but what’s there seems good. So far the MC has died, smashed a bunch of rocks, and started making friends with the villagers through the power of gifting. Not much farming or magery, more of a semi-farming lit rpg.
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May 18, 2024 15:50
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Outcast in Another World is wrapping up now, and I think it stuck the landing way better than I expected it to. Kinda sad that we won't get to see Duran visiting Earth, though.
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May 18, 2024 23:48
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:Orbis Tertius is one of the best stories on RR, I'll have to check this out. Patrick Spens posted:If anyone else fondly remembers Orbis Tertius the sort of sequel is out and being updated. So far it has the combination of funny prose, neurotic protagonist and creeping horror that made the last one so good. Oh that's where I know this author from, he wrote that weird-rear end Worm/Elden Ring fanfiction (Like many Worm fanfictions, there's no reason for it to be Worm fanfiction at all? Not that I read, anyways.)
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May 19, 2024 04:30
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BlueCoffeeJava, who I'd been reading their Divine Creatures story, returned about a month ago after a six month hiatus. They haven't picked back up Divine Creatures, but I finally checked out the story they are writing (and had been writing before), Cerise.quote:On the day Cerise and her best friend Mykhal return from getting their classes, miners from their village rebel. Fearing the reaction of their liege lord, Cerise's family flee. Having no better destination in mind, they turn their steps toward the newly discovered Sea Crest Dungeon. I enjoy it quite a bit. Primarily I'm enjoying the family dynamics, since dead, missing or left behind parents/family are the norm, and having a family together is a nice change of pace, something I'd honestly like to see more of. It's a reincarnation isekai litRPG, but only barely, so don't let those designations keep you away if you hate them. The MC's memories of her past life are very piecemeal, and she only occasionally gets new glimpses which are more flashes of intuition than concrete memories. She studied to be a nurse (though regretted it and wished she went into veterinary instead) and brings some of that with her, but most of it is already practiced widely except for Surgery paired with magical healing (and even that's not unknown, just uncommon), so it's not like she's teaching other healers about germs or has nothing to learn herself. She also doesn't completely hide her situation, but tells her parents about her past before they warn her to keep it secret. As for the litRPG aspect, it's got classes and skills but stats are very abstracted, with no numbers but using ranks like Excellent, Good and Low for health, stamina and mana capacity and stuff like Bruised for how hurt someone is. Skills are primarily a reflection of a person's actual skill with a subject rather than imparting knowledge themselves. The flood of system menu stuff (there are at least no boxes or tables, it's just a list or a description of something) also chills down quite drastically after the first few chapters where the MC gets her first class, so if it's bothering you but you're still interested try pushing through to chapters 4 through 6. There's also a bit of a twist with this system, too, where people can be overwhelmed by their classes. For example, the MC is taken for a mark and bumped by a sickly pickpocket in a city, and her healing skills kick in and she goes into a berserker healing state, healing the pickpocket and then fighting against her friends and family to get to more hurt people she can feel right over there, just out of reach. It's not a common thing that happens out of nowhere, but it's not unknown either. All around, like I said at the top, I'm enjoying it, and glad I started reading it after the author returned instead of before. I'm also enjoying it more than the author's other story I had been reading, Divine Creatures, so maybe check Cerise out if you remember that one. The Patreon just completed the first arc, that Book 1 mentioned in the synopsis, last week, and I'm looking forward to the crew settling down. Onean fucked around with this message at 22:46 on May 19, 2024 |
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May 19, 2024 22:44
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Onean posted:BlueCoffeeJava, who I'd been reading their Divine Creatures story, returned about a month ago after a six month hiatus. They haven't picked back up Divine Creatures, but I finally checked out the story they are writing (and had been writing before), Cerise. Thank you for this recommendation, I have read everything up on RR and really enjoyed it. It reminds me a lot of those first couple BtDEM books before the numbers grew crazy and the idea of healing from decapitation was just par for the course (not that I don't enjoy the latter portion of BtDEM, just that I love a book about a healer and it kind of veered off from that as Elaine got stronger). I am interested in how the past life stuff gets incorporated going forward, and I very much like how the skill system works, being based on understanding and incorporation of knowledge and insight. My only complaint is the running joke about the main character getting hit on. Other characters have been quick to shut it down and I think I trust the author enough from subtext to believe nothing will really come from it, but I still cringe a little every time it pops up.
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May 21, 2024 16:49
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Arbetor posted:Thank you for this recommendation, I have read everything up on RR and really enjoyed it. It reminds me a lot of those first couple BtDEM books before the numbers grew crazy and the idea of healing from decapitation was just par for the course (not that I don't enjoy the latter portion of BtDEM, just that I love a book about a healer and it kind of veered off from that as Elaine got stronger). I am interested in how the past life stuff gets incorporated going forward, and I very much like how the skill system works, being based on understanding and incorporation of knowledge and insight. Oh, yeah, early BtDEM but less numbers (not just smaller, but less of a focus on them too) isn't a bad comparison. I'm not the biggest fan of the flirting either, but to me it feels like a muted representation of what teen-aged girls go through based on real life experience, either personal or observed. As you say, it does at least get soundly shot down the few times it comes up, and the romantic interest isn't remotely part of the problem.
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May 21, 2024 17:34
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Arbetor posted:not that I don't enjoy the latter portion of BtDEM, just that I love a book about a healer and it kind of veered off from that as Elaine got stronger I think BtDEM definitely lost something when it shifted away from being about Elaine overcoming healing challenges, but I'm very glad it was willing to do that. Too many stories just do the continuous escalation thing and I think BtDEM has benefitted from instead shifting mostly to other types of challenges while still keeping her healing relevant.
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May 22, 2024 05:01
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Bought the two first Ultimate level 1 on a slow weekend and then read RR for the rest. It's an OK book. The second book is overpriced for what it is but 3 dollars is fine if you want to read a fun story. I'll keep following RR. It's powerfluff. The author is good at writing action scenes that flow, there's occasionally real tension and danger. And the mystery part is fairly mysterious. It does drag occasionally what with grinding dungeons and he's not that good at writing the relaxing parts. I think he did fine with the two first inkeepers and the side characters in the first two books but then that's sort of dropped and the replacement characters aren't as good. The cult elves were also great and the baker subplot was fun too.
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May 22, 2024 08:50
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Plorkyeran posted:I think BtDEM definitely lost something when it shifted away from being about Elaine overcoming healing challenges, but I'm very glad it was willing to do that. Too many stories just do the continuous escalation thing and I think BtDEM has benefitted from instead shifting mostly to other types of challenges while still keeping her healing relevant. It's been a real challenge FINDING true healing challenges for Elaine at this point. I've got a few in mind, but broadly, she's at the stage where she can just... heal everything. I don't want to give things away, but I do have a challenge, big or small, for each arc until the end of the series. Some are probably more interesting than others, and the current one I'm cooking up is deliciously good. But yes, I didn't want to endlessly escalate, and since Elaine's healing is pretty close to 'done', I can say I've only got a few arcs planned out to wrap up the story. Another aspect - BTDEM's system is one of the crunchiest I know. I've got tables and tables of stats and numbers, charts upon charts, and detailed math describing what each of these things do and what it all means. I've written the rules of the System, and I'm fairly rigid in adhering to them. The moment I torch it, everything goes away. Elaine being so powerful and 'trivializing' healing is simply a natural extension of everything I've written regarding the rules underpinning the System. Way, WAY too many litrpg authors either: A) Their numbers mean nothing B) Will gladly torch their numbers 'for the story' C) Are afraid of their characters getting 'too strong' I've got no such problems. Elaine has earned her OP, she's allowed to be OP, and she's going to be written as OP. It does trivializes a lot of the healing, as was mentioned, but I also recognize that and I'm not trying to drag the story out. I've got a tale I want to tell, I'll tell it, and I'll be done and move onto the next story I'm working on, Roar of the Lion. (Inspired by Song of the Lioness - Two young noble brothers realize that they're going to be poo poo at their culturally-mandated role, and decide to... simply swap places. It's planned on being a tightly paced trilogy, but my betas are already laughing at me and my plans) Selkie Myth fucked around with this message at 09:58 on May 22, 2024 |
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May 22, 2024 09:50
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Wow Supsup turned into Worm (lite) so gradually I didn't even notice.
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May 22, 2024 15:07
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Is that a good or a bad thing?
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May 22, 2024 15:52
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Yeah, I'm curious what exactly you mean by that. Is it the flooded city imagery reminding you of Leviathan?
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May 22, 2024 16:18
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Wittgen posted:Yeah, I'm curious what exactly you mean by that. Is it the flooded city imagery reminding you of Leviathan? This, and it's a lot of dragged out misery that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
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May 22, 2024 16:21
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Lone Goat posted:This, and it's a lot of dragged out misery that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I agree with this. The current arc is going on and on and on and could have been wrapped up at least 5 chapters ago with nothing lost.
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May 22, 2024 17:58
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Truth Medici is gradually turning into a communist as the story goes on
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May 22, 2024 18:10
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Peachfart posted:I agree with this. The current arc is going on and on and on and could have been wrapped up at least 5 chapters ago with nothing lost. Yeah. I'm thinking the pacing of this arc is what convinced Sleyca to take some days off. Hopefully it helps.
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May 22, 2024 19:16
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Peachfart posted:I agree with this. The current arc is going on and on and on and could have been wrapped up at least 5 chapters ago with nothing lost. I try not to comment on structure and pacing in serials, because I know most serialists are amateurs stuck with a format that doesn't really encourage good structure and an audience that takes quantity over quality every day of the week. But Super Supportive is egregiously bad in this respect, to the point that I borderline feel the author just doesn't know how to tell a story. I know "There's no narrative, it's just a series of things happening one after the next" could describe most serials, and most of the time it's not a downside for people. But looking at the flooded city thing as an example, the core beats are really straightforward and could happen in a handful of chapters. Underwater Terrorism happens. (500-900 words) There's a general evacuation order. (300 words) Everyone panics, Alden jumps the teleporter queue. (700-1200 words) Alden hangs out at the consulate. (400-600 words) Looters love axe body spray. (700 words) Oh gently caress, Moon poo poo is happening all over again, good thing Alden watched Swiss Army Man. (500-700 words). The City Is Flooded And Everything Sucks. (2k-3k words divided into 3 arbitrary traversal challenges) Then Alden gets rescued and poo poo moves on. You could cover the entire thing in 3-4 tight, tense chapters. As-is, Ripples and Waves are up to 77k words on the royalroad version, 37k of which were just Alden wandering in the rain, and none of it matters because his eventual rescue had nothing to do with what happened in said chapters. You could replace the entirety of Waves thus far with the words "Alden met a cool diplomat lady and felt bad a lot," and convey the same amount of information. The first Harry Potter book had 76k words, and the fact that any author looks at the story they want to tell and goes "Yeah, I think 300 pages is a good amount of space to spend on a traumatized child doing a Death Stranding sidequest" is completely insane to me. I'm probably the crazy one, but I look at how much serial authors have come to focus on length and density over basic plotting and structure, and I struggle to understand how this is where the serial community's meta ended up.
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May 22, 2024 19:25
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Omi no Kami posted:I try not to comment on structure and pacing in serials, because I know most serialists are amateurs stuck with a format that doesn't really encourage good structure and an audience that takes quantity over quality every day of the week. But Super Supportive is egregiously bad in this respect, to the point that I borderline feel the author just doesn't know how to tell a story. I wouldn't want it cut down anywhere that far but it could certainly be like half the length and lose basically nothing
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May 22, 2024 19:36
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This arc could definitely be written shorter, but I'm not sure that shorter would have necessarily been better or worse. Super Supportive is largely a slice of life with survival interludes, and both of those story types tend to be paced differently than, say, an adventure story with a driving plot.
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May 22, 2024 20:05
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I like super supportive, but the author doesn't do pacing well at all. It isn't about the chapter length necessarily, it's that they overwrite every single scene which leads to bloated wordcount, which leads to me losing interest because so much of it is superfluous.
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May 22, 2024 20:17
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oh god it's metastasizing again you got your own thread, discuss it there
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May 22, 2024 20:20
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People will complain about TWI and the sheer number of words, but stuff at least happens in those massive word drops. I could have skipped the last 5 public SS chapters and I wouldn't have noticed. Edit: Also imo people can talk about SS here, just not pages of black bars due to Patreon content.
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May 22, 2024 20:24
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Megazver posted:oh god it's metastasizing again That's for patreon chapters. This is all RR chapters, stop complaining.
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May 22, 2024 20:38
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I think it would have been a lot better if it didn't feel like a retread of Thegund, but without Kibby. Having Zeridee be a silent piece of luggage... maybe not the best move People just don't enjoy it when they have to read the same story twice within the same webserial Reminds me of when we had the Jason arc in Outcast in Another World. It would have been better recieved if if he wasn't so much like Rob, or Rob hadn't previously been such a point of focus; tiring to read not one but two back-to-back stories about a guy who overcomes every obstacle just because he never learned how to lose. cool how Shadow the Hedgehog was a character in it though
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May 22, 2024 20:49
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To be fair, the moon arc is the only interesting thing that has happened up to this point besides some Velras bits so I'm just glad it's not 30 chapters describing a high school gym obstacle course in excruciating detail mostly.
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May 22, 2024 20:55
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I really liked the school gym bits myself, and they were less of a downer than the current arc. I won't argue they were anything like fast paced, though.
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May 22, 2024 21:06
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Ramie posted:
The OTHER reason why BTDEM healing has gotten less screen time. I can only tell a story ONCE, that's it
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May 22, 2024 21:38
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I am not entirely convinced that people don't want to read the same story twice within the same webserial. I don't want to, but I've gotten the impression there's a contingent who absolutely wants to read the same story ten times.
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May 22, 2024 21:55
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Omi no Kami posted:I try not to comment on structure and pacing in serials, because I know most serialists are amateurs stuck with a format that doesn't really encourage good structure and an audience that takes quantity over quality every day of the week. But Super Supportive is egregiously bad in this respect, to the point that I borderline feel the author just doesn't know how to tell a story. Look at all those numbers. Hell yeah.
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May 22, 2024 22:04
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It’s a good point, the numbers went up so I’m morally compelled to approve
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May 22, 2024 22:06
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Turns out the P in Progression stood for Page Count all along.
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May 22, 2024 22:31
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