nightlogs | Will these two finally manage to have THAT conversation?

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Will these two finally manage to have THAT conversation?

Who: Aiden Price, Dan Sagittarius
What: Price brings Concrete Blonde to Dan and they have a heartfelt discussion about imprisonment
Where: Outdoors
When: After Branch
Warnings/Notes: Prison related topics, Typical Dan related warnings, typical Price related warnings, overall toxic behaviours

Price was going for a walk on his own, figuring that alone meant staying out of trouble - which is not a smart deduction in an unknown place, but nobody tell him, he's just starting to think that maybe the brain damage didn't make him completely useless -, and he happens to run into a pleasant surprise: Concrete Blonde.

He likes to spend time with her, feeding her, and cuddling her. He was about to give her a bath but he remembers reading on the subject while in the Wilderlands library and concludes that it's not the case to do so, especially in these cold temperatures. See? He does go out of his way to ~~serve~~ help, it happens very often! Absolutely appalling that nobody will listen to reason when he calmly - accommodatingly, even! - explains that nothing is his fault ever.

That's why he decided to start refraining from conversations as much as he can. It does pain him because, for all those accusations of being 'antisocial', he really likes people in his own way. Dan, however? He is not like most people. There's something deeply wrong about whatever their friendship is, and Price can't put his finger on it. He feels safest when he avoids him, and yet he needs him. There are so many thoughts and feelings that he has on the matter, but he doesn't feel like being gaslighted about them so, he tells himself, he'll just bring the horse back and then leave Dan alone to his devices.

"I found your horse."

Technically it's their horse, but better not to claim her to make this less difficult. He won't say anything more than what is strictly needed.

"I figured you would want her back."

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"Hey!" Dan grins when he sees Concrete Blonde, and that grin carries over to Price, even though his enthusiasm is much more complicated there. He's mentally tied to Concrete Blonde; it's not that he knows where she is at all times, but is aware he could beckon her and that she'd come running at speeds much greater than any normal horse. That seems to be the bargain that this world made with him, instead of giving him invulnerability and healing.

He's happy about that. He didn't want immortality.

He's been hanging out at the stables, helping with the reindeer. Hauling bales of hay and shoeing the beasts of burden has felt nostalgic for him, a reminder of the farm he grew up on, of a time before everything in his life became about experiencing and remembering and avoiding remembering horrible things. He wasn't expecting to see Price here, but he clicks his tongue at Concrete Blonde, who trots over to him and accepts a nuzzle, her nose to his forehead.

"You figured right. Where'd you find her?" Dan figures being friendly but not overly so is the best way to deal with Price. Attempts at being more than friendly seems to get Price spooked, and a spooked Price tends to act out. And coldness seems just as likely to be received as a threat.

"Not too far from here, perhaps she would have come on her own. Still..."

He doesn't continue the sentence and gives the horse a pat, more to comfort himself than anything else. Dan makes him feel really uneasy. Why wouldn't he feel uneasy? The man fooled him just like that, with all the smiles and charisma, even if Felix who also uses those tools was so easy to clock. Dan's goodness towards him seems genuine and that's what makes it unsettling. After an awkward minute of silence, he speaks again:

"You know," Price gulps "I don't like him, but...I am glad that Bunny is here."

It costs him to admit it, but there are so many feelings he has on seeing Dan look healthier. He could have helped him too, maybe, he has the skill and the patience and the devotion for it, but whenever people get healthy they suddenly know better than to deal with him.

All he can get is people at their worst, people who are as toxic as him, because as much as he can upgrade, there is a line that everyone but him manages to cross, and so he prefers people to be sick. It's an honour to get inside their sickness, to soak in it, it's how he knows he loves them. Or at least, this is what his career has taught him.

There is also some resentment, because he liked for once not being the only one seen as beyond hope, and now turns out that it wasn't true and that Bunny loved Dan into stability. Price, on the other hand, only manages to have good relationships if they are fake or formal, as soon as he gets too close everything crumbles, he can never experience that, they are not the same. It's so unfair! But he likes Dan, and it would be wiser to just let him go. It saddens him, but eventually he is okay with admiring those he likes from afar, it's the most reasonable and less damaging outcome for him and everyone else.

"He has a good influence on you."

"It's nice that you thought to bring her to the stables. Let me show you around the place. North has it all set up with anything one might could need to take care of livestock."

He finishes brushing the reindeer he was working with and leads her back to her stall, then takes Concrete Blonde's reins and walks her towards a hitching post. Dan looks at home in this setting.

Dan's certain he's being tested when Price brings up Bunny, so Dan decides to be light and honest. If he lies, and Price catches him in it, he's certain there will be hell to pay; if he gets serious, he suspects Price will start digging for information that could be used to hurt him.

"He is, ain't he? I'm probably healthier than I been since I was kid these days, what with getting enough to eat, sleeping in with someone to watch my back, and having someone to keep me on the straight and narrow."

He pulls his flask from his pocket and wiggles it, listening to the slosh of alcohol inside. "But not too narrow, naturally. Anyway, can't smoke in here around the deer and the horses so this is my creature comfort while I'm in here. Want a shot?"

Price is not sure whether he's testing Dan or not. Despite his deliberate choices, testing is more of an impulse that he has. Some would call it paranoia, some would even call it a BPD symptom if BPD wasn't a 'girl illness' and he didn't fit everyone's idea of ASPD. Truth is, the only diagnosis he's ever received was conduct disorder as a kid and that doesn't mean anything about adult conditions so maybe everyone else is overreacting, thank you very much.

Dan, on the other hand, is underreacting, and Price knows. He knows that he fills him with dread, which might mean that if this is a test it might be mutual. While he was about to decline the offer, he does drink from the flask.

"Thanks."

There. He's pretending to be chill as well, now. Interactions where nothing is outwardly threatening him just yet are like an intricate dance to him, which is very sad but would almost understandable if Dan wasn't literally just existing right now. Price is aware of that too, he's being too nervous, so he gives Dan one of his empty smiles.

Dan remembers he told Bunny he wouldn't drink around Price or talk to Price outside earshot, but those were promises made out in the wilderness while Dan was crippled with an infected leg injury. Those promises, as well as the hairsplitting between having a sip of alcohol and drinking, can be renegotiated. Even so, when Dan takes his drink, it's just a sip, barely enough to taste the alcohol anywhere but as a waft on his lips, although it appears to be a full shot.

"Of course. Mi casa, su casa." He pets Concrete Blonde some more. "Did you get a chance to ride her? I might could take you out now."

It occurs to Price that Dan may have regained the powers he had on the Rig, just like he did, and of course it would be wise to keep that secret this time. Which means that if they were to ride the horse, Dan would touch him and control his feelings or read them to gossip about it with Bunny who is going to accuse him of something. Price is not a fan of receiving the same treatment he gave to others, even if from 'a good person'.

"Perhaps another time." declining raises probably too much suspicion "I was just about to leave."

Yeah, leave to do what? He bites his lip.

"It's not that Jennifer can't do chores on her own, but we enjoy doing them together and I promised I would help her."

It's strangely easy to understand from his flat voice that he doesn't want to leave. And also from the way he looks at Dan. He's caressing him a bit with his eyes, but not in a sexual way, in a platonic way that is still possessive. Protective. Price is protective of the people he likes, as in only he should be allowed to hurt them.

"Look," he sighs because he knows that the excuse of having something else to do can't work forever "I don't want any more trouble. I am tired."

Honestly Dan being a raspy voiced southerner with serious self-preservation issues and struggles with grief doesn't help, he accidentally reminds him a little bit too much of someone else he would like to be around. Dan is like if the Director was nice to him and acknowledged that he is not a machine. You know, the dream. The nightmare.

Price thinks about the Director and his agents all the time. Of course he does, he doesn't have anyone else to think about, even if all of them turned against him. They are the best he's ever had, and if he believed it before now it feels like a confirmation to hear about the fiction world. He knows that all of that was his story and none of this is. Not Dan, not Jennifer, not Aziraphale, not Filbo (shame he's not here), not anyone else.

Then again, he was so sad when Aziraphale left, and so he decided that if he was going to be good then Aziraphale would come back. Then they all got transferred here, and look, Aziraphale is back! Maybe if he's good, really good, the Director and the agents might come back, and they might even understand this time! Likely they won't, though. Especially after knowing that he made mistakes. Being perfect was literally the only excuse to keep him around, and now that doesn't work anymore.

He's afraid of them actually coming back, but he still needs them, and Dan is an alright substitute, he simply can't decide whether he wants Dan to treat him well or hurt him. It seems that for some time Price has been tripping onto the very tests that he creates for others. In short, he doesn't know what he wants, but it's hard to tell because people and circumstances always told him that what he wants is not what he should go after.

"I mean it."

Edited 2023-09-06 07:22 (UTC)

"I ain't making you stay."

The expression on Dan's face is as transparent as the one on Price's, only Dan's is sad and pained and a little confused. He's done everything he can to try and make Price feel safe and like Price was calling the shots and able to set his boundaries, and still Dan's always cast as the aggressor, the one pushing and manipulating. He isn't sure what to do about that anymore.

It's tiring. Dan usually enjoys figuring people out, but more and more Price feels like a Rubix cube with the stickers peeled off, an unsolvable riddle that's gone past being interesting and into being discouraging - demoralizing.

"It ain't like I'm locking you down. I wouldn't trap you."

"I know."

Being aware and self aware somehow doesn't really stop Price from over analyzing things to the point of unrecognizable. When he feels secure, his skills shine, but feeling cornered does bring out his aggression in ways that are not even true to his usual self. He doesn't know it yet, but right before dying he is going to disarm and kill an armoured soldier with his own gun so fluidly that one would think he's done it a dozen times. He has not.

He feels helpless in a world of people who impose themselves with force, that's why he chose his path, to manipulate all those meatheads into not directing their violence towards him. Which doesn't refer to just military crew, most people are like this during a galactic crisis.

Still, if he plays his cards carefully, he can get himself back, he can rebuild the mask that allows him to channel his skills and his essence in the best possible way, and that is ~~the Director's lapdog~~ the Counselor. He did good with Branch, very good actually. He was kind and considered, and also professional. He was perfect, just like he used to be. And would you look at that, Price feels the need to be noticed for that performance.

"Did you speak to Branch? I was talking to him through the device, but communication must have been interrupted." as in, Branch stopped responding, but details are not important "He seemed to be in need of reassurance."

And that's Dan's job, apparently.

"Yeah, I did. He got himself stuck in one of his traps and needed someone to listen to him while he worked himself out of it. Me and Stacia were the ticket, it looks like."

Dan decides to give Price his space, and instead gets the brush he was using on the reindeer to brush the dust from Concrete Blonde's coat. She's a docile horse. She turns around in the stall so he can get her haunches without complaint.

"I ain't really using the communication systems. You know, ever since I started mouthing off last time about police and prisons and all that. Reckoned it was better to stay quiet and keep to myself instead of letting on how much I don't like authority again."

Price gets saddened at the mention of the topic. Rather than actually saddened, he looks pensive.

"I understand. Those are very controversial topics, they are bound to cause some...Tension, amongst a group."

It would be wise to stop here, but the need to get this complaint out seems too strong:

"Although, I must say: I expected more people to share, or at least appreciate your point of view, given how many of them seem to live in some sort of dystopia."

Which is probably funny coming from him who found refuge in authority and regimented environments. He's like a pendulum that violently swings back and forth between submissive compliance and a near physical need to break the rules. Once again, he found balance in Project Freelancer because it gave him both.

And honestly? Anything that came before Project Freelancer doesn't matter, it shouldn't, it wasn't him, he doesn't want to address it. Which is probably the very reason why he can't move on, but again, it doesn't matter. He is a reasonable authority figure, when it wants to be, and that should qualify has having overcome all the issues in that regard.

Edited 2023-09-11 09:45 (UTC)

"I expected that too."

Dan sighs and keeps brushing Concrete Blonde. "But then, I reckon folks who weren't raised under a rock like I was have a whole different opinion of jail. Prison. I don't know, I never done prison proper, just jail. It didn't take, didn't make me reform my ways or nothing, obviously."

Dan wonders if Price will open back up to him or if the bridge has been too thoroughly burned. He suspects he and Price can level with each other on this topic in a way they can't with anyone else. Both of them, at some point, were decided to be better off in cages by major forces.

Faceless forces, because that's the way law works. It may have ambassadors but it's a faceless thing that lives on paper and in offices and in courtrooms, possessing people like a demon, making them hurt others in the name of just how it is. It possesses people and it cuts and cuts and cuts the corners of justice until there's barely anything left.

"I'm afraid it is not my place to assume."

Price squeezes his eyes closed for a moment, slowly takes a deep breath from his nose.

"However, I would say they likely prioritize the safety of those who are outside of prison rather than those on the inside, and do not want to be confronted about it. Perhaps they would mention the 'rehabilitative benefits' of certain occupational or educational activities. Well, I have not witnessed or been included in any rehabilitation program, for obvious reasons, but the rest is completely..." he doesn't want to trigger himself and get emotional - it's being placating that makes social interactions work, not being strongly opinionated, or freaking out "...Antithetical to rehabilitation of any kind. There are several studies that prove that the worsening of symptoms of mental illness linked to incarceration..."

He's visibly nervous, now, to the point of fidgety. He's been on a good streak for a while and doesn't want to break it, it wouldn't be safe.

"I'm sorry, I'm rambling."

"I ramble all the time."

Dan doesn't approach Price when Price is visibly antsy like this, but he does wish the context between them allowed for him to feel comfortable placing a hand on Price's shoulder, wrist, some kind of friendly touch. Instead, he keeps his voice as reassuring and even as possible, even as his passion at the topic animates his facial expressions.

"No shit. Don't need a study to show that throwing someone in a concrete box don't do wonders for their mental health. Every time I been, I've come out and can't couldn't sleep none for days, even if they ain't thrown me in solitary that time." Arrests and incarceration set off Dan's jumpiness; solitary sets off his depression. "Everything about my life's worse when I get out of jail than it was going in."

Arrests themselves are terrifying, and usually end with all Dan's belongings confiscated, leaving him to steal and con to get his needs met. Going through withdrawal in jail usually means he binges when he's back out to offset that hypervigilance and insomnia. And then he has yet another mark on his record following him.

Price gulps and crosses his arms in a bit of a self hugging gesture, to stabilize. It's not that the anxiety or the sadness aren't real, but they are more of a gateway to him, a gateway to that suppressed rage that even after the most violent and heinous crimes is still not expressed. It's just not how it works, processing that, and it's so odd how his positive traits seem to be genuine but also coincide so much with his near constant fawn response to everything once the fighting inevitably backfires. As soon as those emotions get big enough, poof, they disappear and get converted into something that is too dangerous to get out, for everyone.

No, no, he should focus. It doesn't matter that this subjects triggers him. It triggers Dan, and that's what's important, getting to know more about the dangerous individual in order to tailor safety measures around this information. And yes, safety measures include a little margin for mischief where Price can just hurt him if he feels cuddly or angry or bored.

"I can definitely believe that. Incarceration is just...Detrimental in too many ways."

He's not sure whether he should just let Dan talk, which would be the smarter solution, or whether he should share his own experience as well. See, Dan is the only one who would understand, but being understood by an empath - actually understood is something so foreign to Price that he can only fathom it by piecing together past horrible instances of getting close to others and them ending, well, horribly, and distrusting it accordingly.

"I was being transferred, but...I didn't really go in and out of it."

Which is impressive in its own way, he has gotten away with unspeakable crimes for a very long time.

"Also, while Agent Carolina said that the ship crashed, I was meant to die in prison anyway."

He holds back a grimace. It sounds so heavy when he says it out loud!

"...So I cannot relate to that part." he deflects, because of course he does.

"Well, you know how I feel about making someone a lifer. I think it's one of the cruelest and most counterproductive things you can could do to a person."

Dan knows that Price is feeling some tumult, and wants to respect that by giving him his space, so he moves to the other side of Concrete Blonde to keep brushing her. It's nice, he thinks, to have the horse to bond them together. It's nice to have something Price can care for that Dan doesn't anticipate Price will kill in a fit of angst.

"I was mostly going in and out for short stints, you know, drunk tank, pre-trial or probation violation kind of stuff. I never got the feeling of my life being over like some folks who got longer sentences did." Because Dan may long for death, but the last thing he wants is years and years of waiting for it in a cage. He doesn't prescribe any emotion to Price. If Price wants to tell him how it felt to be a lifer for him, he will.

"It's...A waste of resources."

Price almost argues as if Dan needs to be convinced. He's snappy, Dan's word about the feeling of life being over hit a bit too much and he has to contain himself. If he freaks out, he will alienate the only person who can understand his perspective, and if he runs away from this interaction...Well, he can't be sure that it's going to proceed well once he resumes. Baby steps, do it scared, and all that empirical advice.

"Incarceration is funded with taxpayers' money, after all, and while it is a common strategy to punish the entire group for the actions of a single person in many contexts including the military environment in which I have worked, it is not an effective deterrent in this case."

He looks away.

"Death penalty happens to be more expensive than life sentence, but the end result is not too different. So I wouldn't say there is a point, it is counterproductive."

Inevitably, however, Price thinks about what he said to Sharkface on the Tartarus. He told him that he wanted his life back, and that he would have killed in order to achieve that. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. What life would he even take back? He has nothing left. That's the real problem: his life really was over, and now that he is out to live through these temporary experiences that make no sense, what is he supposed to do? Think that now he has a life again, that he can have friends and a family and be happy? He's not an idiot nor a child, so no, he will never believe that.

"But it's important that I focus on the bright side, for when I go back in," he probably shouldn't add the next part "and die."

"You don't have to go back in."

The last time Dan tried to broach this subject with Price, Price lashed out and shoved him into a river. Dan isn't sure how helpful it'll be for him to keep floating out his own hope for Price as a possibility, but he thinks maybe if he avoids the questions of ethics and self-esteem and instead just emphasizes the logistics...

"There are plenty of universes around here you could pocket yourself away in. I might could help, you know, get you a new identity, a fresh start." He doesn't want to just let Price run loose on a world, but once this business with Kuk is settled and the Guardians are about, maybe Price could have a little covert supernatural supervision without the limitations of a cage.

Price is not sure what it is that this is triggering, because it plays out fast, immediately. Some sort of denial that makes him immediately shoot down the offer.

"These worlds are very unstable, and we shift suddenly with no clear criteria. I doubt it would be wise to settle down anywhere, knowing that."

Home is just not a possibility. He barely has the concept of it in his brain by now. Does it even exist, the perfect world for him? Probably not. The perfect world for him was a reality in the past and it's dead now.

"Besides, I am less likely to meet my agents if I go back, and that is what they would want."

Them being dead because of his schemes might be a part of why, yes.

"Better than settling in a prison cell," Dan says, his voice even softer than it normally is. Somehow, Price keeps finding deeper cracks in Dan's heart to pry it open. Every incidence of self-defeat or bad behavior just makes Dan sadder for the direction Price's life took starting in his youth. Most days, when Dan sees Price, he doesn't see the adult man in front of him but the youth out in the cold, begging his case manager for help.

He doesn't expect Price's agents want anything to do with him, based on their experiences on the Rig.

"It just don't sit right with me to think of anyone spending their life caged up. It's a waste." Waste of money, space. Potential. "I know that makes me a bit of a radical."

"Well, we would have to get out of here first." Price deflects "And then who knows what else..."

The old wounds within him are activated, of course they are, but looking back to think about them? It's just too much. If you ask him, anything before Project Freelancer doesn't exist, has never existed. It's not his fault that his job cured everything and he falls apart without it.

"Besides, I don't want the Director to see me like this." he mumbles.

It probably sounds backwards to Dan, but if the Director thought he was worth taking along none of this would have happened. Price gets defensive immediately, his whole body contracts.

"Yes, I am aware you don't like me talking about him..."

Dan shrugs. "I didn't say nothing."

He isn't exactly going to encourage Price to talk about the Director, but he's come to understand that it's a topic Price will keep returning to whether or not Dan thinks it's a good use of Price's energy. He just figures he'll follow Elle's suggestion, refusing to give Price the desired reaction until maybe Price stops soliciting it.

He isn't here to enable Price's return, over and over, to what was obviously an abusive situation - he also isn't here to give advice, now that Price has so thoroughly rebuffed it. He's here, at most, to listen, and even that doesn't seem to be received well.

That's it? Well, now Price is definitely uncomfortable.
He doesn't understand why is it wrong when he talks about the people he loves when everyone else can do it freely. Why they all want him to be 'pro-social' and then he's not allowed to love the Director and his agents in the only way he can. He shouldn't be alone and he should heal, but only in the way that makes other people comfortable. It's the same old story, like with the case worker. That would explain why Dan sees that younger self shine through his adult face.

"Well, then. What would you do if he was here? Would you bother to understand him or would you take him away from me just because I never act good enough for you?"

Would you save me from him? is a question that pops in Price's mind, but not only he doesn't voice it, he shakes his head to chase it away like an intrusive thought. The Director has not abused him, you know! Unless you want to blame him for stuff, then it was all the Director's doing and Price was merely forced to go along with the plan with threats and probable violence.

Do you really think Price does not fantasize about the Director being here and then giving himself a black eye and hinting that the Director did it? Of course he would still keep defending him, obviously, but the rest of the group would be so alarmed, and maybe the Director would understand to value Price more and they could be together forever doing their experiments. This would be forgotten as just a silly prank, except it isn't because the Director should get his just desserts, but if he learns his lesson and never leaves Price to die again then everything is going to be alright, okay? How is this not the healthiest compromise for them to be together? Basically, he's saving that question for later but it's not at all reflective of their relationship. Besides, it wouldn't nearly come off as aggressive as he's trying to sound.

See, the thing about Price is that while he has felt cornered a lot in the Wilderlands, being actively aggressive is something that he does, well, when he feels cornered. He is not good at it, and yet it's easy. He wasn't doing or saying anything wrong, he simply mentioned a person that is important in his life, but it was still seen as acting out (he knows Dan thinks it's wrong, he feels it). So he figures that if he actually acts out at least he's being punished and judged for a reason.

His tone betrays him, though, along with the fact that he already genuinely expressed that he doesn't want to fight, but he keeps trying and failing to be aggressive. The truth is that he doesn't know how to behave if the Director were to show up, he is scared of how he might react, and wants to know what he should do, but it still doesn't mean that he should renounce to him, it's not fair. Dan is not over his family, he is allowed to think about them, and there is nothing wrong with it, so why is this different?

"He is not the monster the agents say he is."

"I would try to understand him. I don't believe in that kind of monster."

Dan could very well say he doesn't believe in monsters, but his line of work draws him into contact with plenty of people who are monsters by species, hellcats and faun and werewolves and the like. But he doesn't believe one can become a monster through action. Monster implies both a lack of autonomy and an irredeemability; monsters can't improve upon their nature, can't be reasoned with, can't do anything but frighten and terrorize.

People aren't monsters, not to Dan. So it hurts him that Price doesn't think he'd give the Director the same grace he gives everyone. He'd have thought Price had seen enough of him to understand that about Dan.

"If he do show up, you'll see. If not, it's a moot point." He pets Concrete Blonde and starts to check her mouth for any sores from her bridle, doing all the usual maintenance and care on a horse.

The fact that Price phrased his question like a pissed off kid that wants his favourite toy back likely did not go past Dan, and that's what makes his dynamic with the Director so much more layered and confusing.

"He's...He's the best." present tense as if he's not dead - out of sight, out of mind "I did well under his guidance."

He did! He really did! He was rigorous and disciplined and never made mistakes, not the mess that Dan knows.

"And it's good that he never saw the inside of a cell. He is too sensitive to withstand that treatment."

Price says it more to convince himself. If they were both imprisoned, the Director would have realized his mistakes and reward the loyalty and efficiency, he's sure of it. Life would have been more bearable. The truth however is that the Director left him behind and died without ever thinking of him again, because had always been too self absorbed to do so.

"I believe you." Dan believes Price did 'well' under the Director's guidance, in that Price felt valued and had a structure to adhere to and was, for whatever it was worth, happier in that situation than in the disorienting and stifling and frustrating social milieus they've found themselves in. He doesn't believe that the Director is the best but he also knows better than to get into that pointless argument.

"Lots of folks are. Like I said. I don't reckon incarceration improves behavior for many." He looks at Concrete Blonde and thinks of how often he has to run her to keep her from getting restless, how an hour a day outside a cell to play basketball and run around the cellblock isn't enough to keep even the most sluggardly humans from going stir-crazy. "It's too traumatic."

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cw for uhhhhh "crazy ex girlfriend" stereotype thoughts?

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