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bluefirewrites · 4 years

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Sky High Mall!AU Part 2

Hey this is another excerpt from the Sky High Zach x Magenta WIP that I never finished (hence WIP).

It’s a Mall!AU where the characters are kids with summer jobs at the mall. No powers and it’s set around the time the movie came out- 2005.

Part 1: https://bluefirewrites.tumblr.com/post/636284063233327104/sky-high-mallau

Would be Rated T and there’s excessive use of language throughout.

This excerpt would be Zach’s perspective working at the music store at the mall. Enjoy!

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Zach booked it down the mall, zooming past the crowd gathered at Sonic Boom, the music store

The music store he worked at.

The one he was supposed to be at right about now.

He pushed through the crowd, getting to the front where his coworker was working the register, seeming to throw the albums at the customers because it was that busy.

Zach loved his job... on any other day. He was a total musichead and he thought it was a long shot to even snag the job, considering it was common knowledge that it was run by Boomer who was a total hardass and pretty unforgiving to those who he deemed had shitty music taste.

He had seemed to wow him enough during the interview, which had been merely them talking about the music he listened to. Thank god, he had just enough of an eclectic music taste that he was able to keep up with whatever soft rock ‘80s classic question that Boomer threw his way.

The Black Eyed Peas album just dropped today and everyone had been clamoring to get in to grab it, so it meant all hands on deck. But only the hands that Boomer could afford to pay right now, so it was only Speed there at the moment.

Zach leapt over the counter, shedding his jacket to reveal his shirt already sporting his name tag, “Yo, is Boom here yet?”

“Cutting it close, freshie,” The senior looked like he wanted to throttle him for leaving him hanging longer than he should have. But it was only like 5 minutes, and Zach had been rushing from summer school to make it home, get ready, then come straight to the mall. He did the best he could.

“You know you can stick a hat on it right?” Speed ruffled his hair while tapping his own cap, messing up the gel that he had put in there before he came to the store and greasing up his hands in the process.

“Hey!” Zach cursed him out for deflating his hair as well as making him pick up the slack while Speed wipes off the hair gel.

Speed always pulled shit like this on him. He hated having shifts with a guy who loved to pick on him, and not in the friendly-joking way that he was used to.

For the next couple of minutes, the two of them were able to go ring up the crowd quickly, even shrunk down the amount of people in the store to half of its capacity. It was still busy, but it was more manageable than before that it actually freed up Speed to do his laps around the store, trying to quell the crowd and mitigate whatever problem came up that would have resulted in calling in the manager.

20 minutes later, they both had a lid on the situation. Only because they were pretty much no more copies of Monkey Business. Zach was about to check if they had more when he realized that the store was eerily quiet. He had just noticed that the TVs around the place were turned off and no music was playing in the store.

Zach went for the sound system dial towards the back of the store but Speed came from behind and beat him to it, “You snooze, you lose, freshie.” His coworker sliding in a Snoop Dogg CD he had snagged from earlier.

He groaned. Zach didn’t mind Snoop, but Speed would play it almost nonstop every time Zach can’t reach the dial fast enough. Speed had almost no taste, always playing chart toppers and whatever cute girls would request (which usually would be chart toppers).

Speed waltzed over to the records, getting high-fives from a couple of customers on the way over, “It’s what the people love!”

“Not Boomer,” Zach pointed out, whilst walking over to the main displays up front. The crowd had kept bumping to the table so he had to make it look tidy.

“But Boomer ain’t here. He’s never here,”

Zach looked up and caught a glimpse of his hair on the main monitor that was supposed to feature the Black Eyed Peas music videos. Shit. It was sticking out in weird places and looked deflated in others. He ran his hair through it and tried to zhuzh it up with his fingers but nothing seemed to be staying.

“Aww.You’re still pissy about your hair? Did you a favor, dorkwad,”

Zach rolled his eyes. Normally, he would try to steer clear of Speed and try not to notice him. But his co-worker seemed to be in such a talkative mood today, “It was fine the way it was, Speed.” He finished resetting the table cloth and arranging the display how it was supposed to look before turning around to help a customer find a Celine Dion CD.

“Stop being such a tryhard,” Speed said to him as he passed with the customer, “The ladies like it when you’re chill.”

“How would you know that?” A new voice added. Once Zach successfully helped the customer, he whirled around to find his buddy, Will. He took notice of the blue shirt and gray khakis and figured he had work today at Champs. He barely saw Will anymore due to Zach having summer school and their schedules never seemed to match up.

“Shut the fuck up, Stronghold,” Speed sneered at the newcomer.

Will paid him no mind while he shook Zach’s hand before bringing him in for a quick hug, “Zach-Attack!”

“Will, like it’s not great to see you, cuz it is. Great. To see you, that is,” Zach kept on the lookout for Boomer while walking towards the register because Speed had left it unattended, “Kinda not a good time right now, man.”

Will greet a few other people he knew around the store. He scanned the big displays and the cardboard cutouts on the front, “BEP?”

“BEP,” The blonde confirmed, “And I’m already on Boomer’s bad side for fucking up with the Mariah Carey launch.”

His friend clicked his tongue, recalling that certain incident. Zach remembered that Will had been working his shift downstairs when he heard Boomer let him have it. He had heard Boomer all the way from down there- that was how bad it was.

“How were you supposed to stop a bunch of nimrods from defacing her cut out?”

Zach shuddered at the thought of all the obscene Sharpie marks all over Mariah Carey’s cardboard figure, “I swear, Speed had something to do with it. That guy has got it out for me ever since I started working this joint,” he whispered.

“It’s because out of everyone here, you’re the customers’ favorite. You actually know your shit,”

Zach figured that it was somewhat true. They would get regulars pretty often and they always seemed to gravitate towards him. Zach did enjoy making connections with everyone no matter what their music taste was.

One time, this one guy came in, all in orange, who had been tentative in asking where the classical music selection was. Luckily, Zach got to him first before Speed could roast him. And good thing too, because that guy became one of his favorite regulars. He might be working at Radio Shack, the last he heard from him.

“Thanks, man,” Zach really appreciated it. Sometimes he couldn’t help but get all up in his head at his job. He wanted to do really well and hopefully one day he would have worked enough hours to save up for a car. He had been getting real tired of having to rush on his bike everywhere and being constantly late.

“But seriously, scatter. Don’t make me have to kick you out.” he joked to his smaller friend.

“Yeah, Stronghold. Go back to dealing with smelly feet all day,” Speed yelled from his side of the store.

“You’re just jealous because I got the job and you didn’t,”

Zach had to hold back a laugh seeing Speed getting worked up so quickly. He had heard Speed bitching about being passed over the job at Foot Locker constantly. The guy had been a total sneakerhead so it had been a crushing blow to his ego that a freshman got the position while he was stuck working for cantankerous Boomer.

“Whatever, man. You probably got it because you’re a Stronghold,”

Will shook his head, the jabs of his dad being the Mayor never really fazing him much anymore, “Remind me again, how did you get the name, Speed, again?”

The rotund bully growled. Everyone knew that there were two stories that could have explained how Speed got his infamous moniker. One was because all the joyrides in his Jeep that resulted in property damage. The other well… had to do with distributing contraband. Bringing up either, was cause for a beatdown.

Speed advanced towards Will, ready to punch him square in the face, no matter how many onlookers in the store gathered around to watch the debacle. Zach had to vault over the counter, to get in between the two when all of the sudden a resounding yell broke through the clatter that made all parties involved wince and cover their ears.

“Ladies, enough!”

Boom strolled in, aviators perched on his crooked nose, commanding the attention of the room- as if his voice didn’t do that already. He came up beside Zach, poking at Will to step backwards until he was out of the store,“Shouldn’t you be downstairs, Stronghold?”

“Yes, Boomer,” He shouldered his bag before throwing a passing glance at Zach. Good luck, he seemed to emote.

Rightfully so because all of the sudden Boomer marched over to him, “Why if it isn’t Superstar, here to grace us with your presence,” His eyes landed on the BEP display and noted the dwindling number of albums, “Restock those will ya? And Speed” he turned to the older boy, “you’re relieved of your post.”

Speed looked up to the heavens, “Thank fuck.”

“Language!”

He straightened up, “Sorry, sir,” Then he ducked for the back, switching off Snoop Dogg as he did so. Zach followed suit to where they did inventory and found another box of the albums and hauled ass back out to replace the albums on the display.

“Now, get to that, will you,” Boomer ordered while counting up the till to see if everything was where it should be, “And if I see a hint of Sharpie on either of those cardboard figures, your ass is mine, kid.”

Zach almost let out a laugh but remembered it was Boomer. He meant everything to be a threat, “O-okay,” he managed to get out without laughing. Then he saw Boomer closing up the register and heading for the door, “Wait? You’re leaving already?”

“Yeah. I’m the owner. I can do what I want,”

“I mean, since I’m like the only guy here and it’s a pretty busy day- I thought-”

“You thought what? That you need help?” he seemed to project the full force of his voice at him that Zach cowered against his better judgement.

“Listen, I started this shop to fill it with music,” His boss went off, “Real music. Not what passes off as music these days. Those hip grinding degenerates are showing up by the boatloads today and I don’t wanna be here when they do.”

A little boy approached the man, tugging against his cargo shorts, “Excuse me, where are the Eminem CDs?”

Boomer looked at the kid with disgust and shimmied him off, “That’s my cue,” He scrounged his pockets for the keys and tossed them Zach’s way, “Here, you’re closing up today.”

“What the-?” Zach nearly fumbled with the keys, “Again?” He had been closing every night this week, despite not actually being allowed to, with him being 15 and all. But Boomer had an arrangement with Ron Wilson, security guard who patrols at night.

“Don’t mess this up for me, Blondie!” His boss yelled just an influx of people arrived at the store, hungrily grabbing the CDs off the display he had just finished restocking.

“I’ll try,” he responded, knowing full well that Boomer could not hear him. Speed sped by, sticking his tongue at him on his way to freedom. The line of people had started forming and Zach cracked his knuckles- no choice but to face them on his own.

#sky high #sky high movie #sky high 2005 #sky high au #sky high fic idea #zach x magenta #magenta x zach #zach sky high #magenta sky high #zach braun #magenta lewis #zagenta #guineaglow #tagging this even tho these excerpts don't show them meeting yet #haha #speed sky high #boomer sky high #will stronghold

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lady-nevermore · 7 years

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Dear Wolf....Tbh, our friendship was doomed from the start.

Disclaimer: The people whom I’ll be writing these letters to will remain anonymous for obvious reasons, nor will I actually be sending (or wanting for them to read) these so-called letters (hence why I’m calling/tagging these as “Letters to No One

Dear L*** (Codename: Wolf - Cause you told me how much you loved, and how your fave animal are wolves).

Dear Wolf,

*sighs* ....I don’t even know where the fuck to begin tbh. :/

The beginning seems like the best place to start I guess; It was year the 2007, during our 6th period English Class, of our freshmen year of highschool. First couple days of class, and your were sitting behind my desk, I remember cause you kept obnoxiously, and deliberately shaking my desk so damn violently just to annoy the fuck out of me (i kept asking you politely to stop, like multiple times, but you persisted anyways); till it made me snap and i raised my voice, telling you to STOP!.....Don’t think it worked tho, cause I remember asking our English Teacher (Ms. H) if I could change seats, and she allowed it. -___-;

It wasn’t until later on in our freshmen year, that you realized I liked anime (most importantly to you: Inuyasha and Naruto); I’m not sure, if this was what got you to stop acting like such a dick towards me, but it was between this revelation that i loved anime, and the fact that at the time, I had befriended your Best Friend/Your Brother by a different Mother (as you preferred to call it) aka Cisco-Kid, that our friendship actually stood a chance of being possible.

That’s when we really started to bond,over naruto, over inuyasha, anime, etc. Hell, we used to butt heads from time to time, cause you’d argue that Naruto was better than YYH, and we’d debate (back then, i was a cringey snobby, 90′s anime elitist, praising YYH above all else, thank god I’ve become more humble, liberal and open-minded on most things in life as a young adult, or else I wouldn’t be able to stand myself)....but we really started to get close during our sophomore year when I told you (you were the only person I ever told in those days) of how my Aunt C emotionally abused me, and you told me how you also suffered from abusement when you were young....that brought us closer together, you were prob the only person I ever allowed myself to get that emotionally close to. We also bonded over the fact that your former Best-Friend, let’s call her Karate-Girl, cause she used to love taking karate/self-defense lessons, ended up drifting apart from you and ended up being best friends with my former Best-friend (let’s call her Greenbean), cuz we too drifted apart from each other......in a way, we found solace in our mutual sense of loneliness together, and our friendship grew from there. Hell, we even talked a lot about our dream, especially when we used walk together after school, I remember cause you used to tell me how much you wanted to be a doctor or nurse.

But yeah, we had good times as well with, me, you and cisco-kid, we’d always hang out go to starbucks and just talk about anything and everything both in real life and on the phone or through AIM, or just going to your house to play video games: like sing-star, hanging out at the mall, introducing me to sushi and making it a routine eating at Yo Sushi’s, We’d fangirl/fanboy over anime, studio ghibli films, anime, etc. Hell, during my 18th birthday, I ended up purchasing a replica of Kenshin’s Reverse Blade Sword (but it wasn't sharp, both sides were dull), and I remember how we’d fangirl/fanboy over it (but you especially had a gleam in your eyes when ever you held it and swung it around with one arm) and how’d you’d scoff at me for choosing to hang it on my wall.....cause you said it was pointless if you didn't use it.....and I was all like well it’s a replica, it just for decoration, it’s not meant to be used in real battle because it’s not in fact an actual real katana, plus kenshin’s way of life was to not show off and use his sword to hurt others, but rather as a last resort to protect the ones he loves....But yeah, after that we’d ended up often going to go eat Sushi at either Davis or San Francisco, which was always fun during the summer school breaks. Yup, them were good times indeed. ^-^

Then things got complicated, after i had broken up with Vegas-boy, you asked me why, I told you to keep this to yourself, and said: that I just didn't feel a connection with him, even after 6 months of us dating.....and the very next days, you told me upfront that the Bro before hoes aka the bro code was too important and that you told Vegas-boy what i told you to keep to yourself (that was when I truly felt a sense of betrayal from you....because yeah okay sure, i get that you value that stupid bro-code above all else, but what about our fucking code of friendship? Did our friendship mean soo little to you that you’d go and disregard my wishes to keep that to yourself (no matter how benign it as). I knew from that moment on, that I could no longer trust you to keep a secret, that’s for sure. :/

Later, on as time went by our playful banter back and forth turned into a slight sense of flirting, hell you almost even teasingly kissed me lightly on the corner of my mouth, almost, but then a few days later you told me how much of a bad idea it was for friends to date each other, because it would endanger or risk destroying said friendship (I thought that was ludicrous, because I would still be open-minded enough to remain friends with someone even if said relationship didn’t work out or if our feelings for each other weren’t mutual.....plus I think the concept of falling in love with a close friend, is such a beautiful thing)......But nonetheless i immediately backed off with the flirting, and so did you and we remained friends....hell I never even got the chance to tell you that i had feelings for you, mostly cause I was too afraid to get rejected, especially when you told me that it was a bad idea and too risky dating your friends, and all that nonsense (and I’m not gonna lie but it hurt seeing you date someone else for a bit....I got over it tho, and quickly cuz during my junior year I started crushing really like really hard on this girl, let’s call her Lady-Piña , but that’s a story for another time, i’m afraid). lol ^^;

As time went by, I remember how often you used to ask to borrow my cell-phone (a flip-phone in that day and age), cause you didn’t have one and you needed to text someone, and you used to say how important this was).....And I reluctantly agreed to let you borrow it (you said it was important, and my immediate thoughts were that you were using it to text your family members or something).....It never occurred to me that you were using for other means.....And see, this is what really started to piss me off about you (hell thinking back it still fucking pisses me off). You would borrow my cell-phone, and text (using my name mind you, and never telling others that it was you who was actually texting them) and you would emotionally manipulate anyone (most of our mutual friends, especially, in regards towards Karate-girl) that you texted or just talked shit to, in my name, using my name as your shield (and most of these text conversations were about defending your name in things, I remember cause during one of my classes, a couple of my good friends kept giving me the stink eye (and I was confused at fuck), hell one of them out right asked me upfront, What the hell was wrong with me and how could i emotionally mess one of our mutual friends like that....we cleared the air once she realized that I had let you borrow my cell-phone (I remember cause she said it was unheard of and just plain odd that I’d act like that, even if it was through text....I responded/and agreed with her with a “yeah, i know me too”.....Like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WOLF? >:(

^Who the fuck would do something soo damn shitty, petty and manipulative like that, and constantly, mind you?!?! >_<

I mean sure, we were teens, we were stupid and immature and all that junk, but dammit, it wasn’t the fact that you used my name to talk shit to people (i mean like a part of it is) but it was more over the fact that you fucking emotionally messed with some of my friends, especially Karate-Girl, and hurt them without a second thought (and it wasn’t for those two that supposedly called me out for all this, that was your fucking doing, I would have never have noticed how much you hurt them, and immediately made sure to reassure them otherwise, and try to damage-control whatever the hell you put them through). It took a great deal of patience on my part, to not go off on you, and just let it go.....I kept making the same excuses for your actions, that you were still just a teenage boy and you just hadn’t learned to mature yet, but that you’d get there.....but oh how wrong, i was.

....Fuck, I mean if anything, you’re the reasons my trust issues have sky-rocketed to be honest. :/

And don’t even get me started on your possessive/jealous nature (you’d refer to this as a high sense of loyalty, but here’s the thing, it wasn’t, it was more possessiveness, with you being in control rather than loyalty); Every Time me and Cisco-kid would do projects, or hangout, with other people, you’d throw a damn fit, it was impossible to get you to see that we were not trying to replace you, no matter how many times I tried to reassure, time and time again that that wasn’t the case (i mean i get it, i know what it’s like to feel insecure about where i stand in friendships, scared that i’m just either in the way, or fear that people don’t really actually care about me) but you weren’t just jealous oh no, you were the type of person who’d painstakingly guilt-trip us time and time again whenever we’d hang out we people that weren’t you....*sigh* I mean hell, i even made plans several time alongs with cisco-kid to get you to meet and hangout with our other fellow classmates/friends.....but you’d always declined, and the few times you did join us, you’d always brood and give them the stink eye the entire day (and they told me how uncomfortable you’d make them feel cause of that).

I remember when I was walking home from school with panda-boy one day, and told me he needed to tell me something important, that just didn't sit well/ or right with him.....he told that he heard you call me a bitch (and not the bitch please, funny meme kind, panda-bot told me that it was in a malicious-tone of voice)....Panda-boy told me it didn’t sit right with him because he was appalled and he didn’t know what possessed you say that about me behind my back, and that it was completely uncalled for (I said that it you were probably having a bad day and that you prob didn't mean it, so i didn’t really pay too much mind to it)......I mean sure, I did feel sad and disappointed to be sure, because i felt like maybe i wasn’t doing a good enough job in being good friend, i asked Panda-boy if he thought I was a good friend or not, and he said i was being ridiculous, and that of course I was......but I didn't feel like it, after hearing you say something like that....it made me feel very small, alone, unworthy as friend-material, and just plain conflicted. So much so, that I ended up asking Cisco-Kid the same thing, and he ended up calling you Wolf, so we could smooth things over and talk. I asked you Wolf, I asked you directly if you thought I was a good enough friend, and you didn’t really meet my eyes and laughed nervously and said I was; that made me feel quite relieved and it reassured me, even if your response did feel half-assed at best.

^And tbh, this wasn’t the only time you’d made me doubt myself, hell I recall the times when you would always tease me, about my mexican accent/spanish being less than perfect too, or how I ashamed you made me feel about me not knowing how to cook some of our culture’s most important mexican dishes (such as pozole, frijoles, arroz, caldo, etc).....I mean I’m learning how to do all of this now, and it’s been a long time since I felt torn or caught between both cultures, now that I’ve long since embraced my mexican culture/roots as best I can, and have found a calming sense of peace and belonging in accepting both parts of myself....but i can’t deny that your voice/taunts still haunt me from time to time (making me feel like I’m not good or worthy enough in regards to my mexican heritage).

Which reminds me, you always took great pride in having machismo (a sense of masculine pride)....it always bothered me, cause even though you said it jokingly, or so it seemed, I always got a feeling from you: that you felt like women needed to stay put in their proper places so to speak.....that and in combo with your anger issues, and the the way you used to tell me that whenever you’d get angry you’d punch a hole through your wall (or that one time this one girl in our class pissed you off, and you told me if you were allowed to punch a girl, she’d be the only exception)......all of that made me feel hella uneasy/and uncomfortable...and this had been going on and accumulating for years since we met.....All of these were red-flags that i should have seen coming a mile a way, tbh (even Karate-Girl, your former Best-Friend, you had a crush on whom said that she felt hella uncomfortable with you texting her constantly non-stop about your crush on her, warned me that she was afraid I’d turn into a doormat, if i wasn’t careful....so why do i get the feeling that she was referring to you when she told me that.....and now that I think about it, was that why she always took those selfdefense/karate classes? Cause of you, Wolf). Plus my own mother said she was really glad that I’d chosen to cut all ties off with you.....maybe they were right.....

Cause the last time we saw each other (we were around 18-19), a year or so after we graduated high-school (when I finally told you how uncomfortable you made me feel, especially with your quick temper/anger issues, and all this stuff accumulating over time, but that i always thought you’d just grow outta of this toxic mindset by now, but i guess you didn’t cause), you obviously didn’t take it very well, cause we were playing ping-pong ball and you were obviously brooding, in a very bad mood, but most especially towards me, and you kept hitting the ball with soo much force and ferocity in attempts to hit me, that I could see the malicious smirk whenever it almost did hit me, i could see the terrifying look of pure hatred you had for me in your eyes whenever our eyes met; Cisco-kid even had to forcibly pull you aside and ask you what the hell was going on with you, and you reacted to this by flinging the ping-pong paddle to the side so damn hard in anger and just stomping away.

But from that day on, i could tell that day how i could no longer feel safe or comfortable in your presence, let alone in being your friend, so i did what i thought was best for me, and cut you and all your toxicity out of my life completely....A few months later my mentor had passed away, i was failing/struggling with my classes, all of our friends were drifting apart, and just felt soo damn alone, apathetic, and I just couldn’t take all of this anymore, and had a nervous/mental breakdown and fell into a deep depression, and hell you know the rest.

^And Tbh, you’re one of the reasons why I chose this username, the: Nevermore part at least.....cuz I promised myself that I would never ever again find myself in another abusive/or in an almost abusive relationship: Platonic, Family, Romantic or otherwise, which is ironic, because you were the only person back then I ever told about me suffering from emotional abuse from my Aunt C (I did not want history to repeat itself anew, cause I won't stand for it anymore.....not with my aunt and certainly not with you Wolf). >:[

^And tbh, looking back (with how you violently shaking my desk just to mess with me) I can’t help but feel like that was the first of many signs, that our friendship was doomed from the start. :/

I mean I’ll always try to look back fondly on the good times and stuff, at the very least, cause we did in fact have some really good times, but I can’t help but feel like it’ll always be in a bad-taste in my mouth sorta way......just utterly disappointed and tainted....

I don’t regret our friendship, we had some good moments to be sure (but I can't deny that there are moments where I almost feel like I do regret it, looking back).....but if there’s one thing I’m absolutely certain of, is that I will never forget that look of pure hatred in your eyes when you kept hitting that ping-pong ball with suich force in my direction.....and in turn, will never feel safe, comfortable, or trust being alone with you, let alone want to reconnect with or couldn’t try to be your friend ever again.

I’ve made my peace with this anyway, and it’s best we continue to go our separate ways......but if need be, we can each always look back fondly at the good times at least (I know I will at least continue to try to do, despite it all).

Welp, thanks at least for trying to be civil there towards the end, I guess.

Farewell Forevermore,

-Lady Nevermore

#Letters to No One #therapy side blog #Dear Wolf #tbh - our friendship was doomed from the start :/#letters to people I knew in the past (old high school friends / Mentors / Etc).#Me the YYH die-hard fangirl vs you the Naruto fanboy #we used to butt heads a lot over this (but then again we were both young/naive and stupid as young teens)...#thank god I'm not that dumb 90's anime elitist anymore (and that I've become more open-minded growing up as a young adult). >_>;#this feel a lot like me venting (which it probably is...haven't thought about all of this in a very long time tbh).

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