Adrien de Moulins

Bio: Camille Jordan

2015-07-16T13:20:31Z

Petite, blond Camille Jordan was an up-and-coming movie star in the 1950s. A native of Los Angeles, she began her acting career as a teenager, appearing in commercials and theater productions before making her big break in Cemetery Wind, a vampire movie released on the heels of various Dracula and Frankenstein movies. The movie was a hit, and she began filming a sequel the very next year.

Unfortunately for Camille, the subject matter hit too close to home for the local vampires, and the filming of the second movie was plagued with disappearances and murder. After finding her co-star, actor Richard Wilde, dead of an apparent animal attack in his dressing room, she fled to her uncle's home in northern California. Where the vampires caught up with her.

In the present day, Camille Jordan is a fashion designer living in London. It makes a perfect cover for her other job, as one of the vampire Council's enforcers.

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On Use of Magic

2015-06-29T04:20:34Z

So far, I've been handwaving magic use, saying that the vampires in his world can use magic but not saying how. I would still like to give myself a little leeway to refine the system but I do need to spell it out, at least a bit, if only to have a resource to keep myself straight.

Vampires in this canon have some innate magical talent, but it isn't anything they can use without training and practice. Most purebloods learn magic from their parents. The turned vampires who study magic do so by everything from actual training to getting lucky and picking up the right book at Barnes & Noble.

Vampires excel at ritual magic. Some, such as Adrien, practice a form of Technomancy. Their magic is channeled through or involves technology in some way. Others, like Gregorio, prefer blood and alchemy based magic, but dabble in other areas as needs arise.

Most who study magic are capable of some simple and common spells.

1. First is a ward spell. It's not so much to keep things out as it is to notify the caster that it's been breached. Very often these take the form of statues or architecture in some of the more traditional areas of Europe, but can be as simple as trees or even spray paint under a bridge. Anything that can be inscribed with a symbol for the caster. As long as the symbol stays intact, it notifies the caster when other vampires or sorcerers of sufficient skill breach the perimeter. Most vampires use them around their own property. Some place a second perimeter around the town they live in. The wards give very basic warning, whether the intruder is human, vampire, or something else, approximate age or power, gender, and approximate location while inside the protected area.

2. Some basic forms of telepathy are taught. This type of telepathy reads surface thoughts only, the "internal monologue" of the victim. Direct eye contact and concentration are required. There is no way to control what is received from the victim. Languages and jumbled thoughts are not translated for the caster.

3. Some vampires, such as Adrien, are able to conjure fire without the use of a full ritual or the usual types of ignition. It requires concentration and knowledge of a weak point in the material being set ablaze. Faulty parts in electrical equipment, fuel stored improperly, dry brush too near a heat source, Faulty container, etc. Nothing that would not usually burn can be set ablaze, and investigations usually conclude fire causes to be accidental. Due to their high heat and usual state of repair, computer and other advanced electrical equipment is particularly vulnerable.

Other magic performed by vampires or sorcerers in canon requires ritual, concentration, and time and is not something most would turn to in a fight.

Most also do not immediately sense another of their own kind. There are clues, such as slower heartbeat, eye color of the purebloods, aversion to daylight or bright light, but no magical "sense" that warns others of their own kind if they manage to avoid the perimeter wards. Purebloods are very territorial and generally do not travel far or to areas they don't control, as a rule, but turned vampires often get mistaken for humans when in areas the vampires' superior senses can't be fully utilized.

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May 23, 1940

2015-05-15T05:13:10Z

Just an OOC write-up of what led to Adrien being staked and confined to a coffin for most of the 20th century. Feel free to get with me if your character would know any of this IC.

In 1928, Adrien de Moulins ended up at odds with the Council in Europe due to his habit of keeping humans to feed on, without killing them. After losing two teams of security personnel to him, the vampires stepped back to see what would happen with him. Due to the slowly infectious nature of vampire saliva, they expected something to happen eventually.

Adrien first came to the attention of hunters in 1931 in New York City. Strange, hostile, zombie-like creatures attacked people at random who entered disused subway tunnels. Any who were bit turned. The infection was eventually tracked back to a vampire and mob hitman, Adrien Molyneux. Acting on anonymous tips from other vampires, a group of hunters confronted him in New York. Two of the hunters died, and Adrien fled.

The hunters continued to be fed information by the vampires, and he was tracked as he fled from Scotland to Moscow to Budapest and finally to Paris and then to Moulins. In each city, except for Moulins, Adrien left the hunters with some kind of supernatural threat in each city. Fires in Edinburgh, rampaging demons in Moscow, more zombies in Budapest, and murderous revenants in Paris. When he was cornered in Moulins, he was staked and rendered immobile. Before he could be killed, the other vampires ordered him to be left in his coffin for eternity.

To keep an eye on him, a young hunter named Robert N'Daiye was left as groundskeeper and paid by the vampire Council in Venice to keep intruders out of the Moulins castle.

Adrien was released in 1993, when a teenager broke into his crypt and dislodged the stake from his heart. He moved most of his remaining possessions to Tampa, Florida, where he began to learn about the 20th century and establishing himself again.

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Avenged Sevenfold - A Little Piece Of Heaven

2015-05-10T11:12:30Z

Warning for the squeamish and the at-work types, this is so not safe...for anything really. Still a pretty good song for Adrien and his late wife, I think.

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demoulins @ 2015-04-10T09:19:00

2015-04-10T13:20:59Z

“Look, Adrien, it’s not that I don’t agree with you. I do, but…”

“But you’re too cowardly to take a stand? Come on, Gregorio, you know this is our best chance to remain undetected.”

“Or our best chance to be found out for certain, this time. We barely managed to escape the last outbreak. If it had taken place ten years later, the humans would have found the toxin in the victims’ blood, and it would all be over. And now I’m getting word that at least a few of the deaths in Africa aren’t from the plague, but from us…” He shook his head.

Adrien gave a grim laugh. “I wouldn’t be surprised. An opportunity to expand territory makes the young bloods greedy.”

Gregorio gave a sigh. “I can’t condone keeping humans closer to us than they already are. You know what’s happened every time we’ve tried keeping them for food. The toxin is carried in our saliva, too. A low dose over a long period provokes a response. They grow ravenous, heedless of all but hunger. Afraid of the sun and fire, but precious little else. We were lucky in earlier times, we could mask our purges as the Plague, polio…even damned dysentery. Plant a Plague victim in view on the pyre, and they were all too happy to let all the bodies burn.” Gregorio scowled at Adrien. “Now they have medicine. They ask questions. They’re very, very close to answers that would hurt us.”

“Which is why I want a feeding population. With careful control, it can be done.” Adrien spread his arms wide. “Look, you know where my territory is. The United fucking States. I can’t take a piss without worrying it’s on camera. It’s getting uncomfortable having to dispose of a body or more per week. Soon my son is going to need a supply as well…I’m going to draw unwanted attention regardless.”

“You would rather draw hunters than police?” Gregorio raised an eyebrow.

“I can take the hunters. Police would run me out of my territory and back to Moulins for good. I had a taste of that already. I like this age, I’m not giving it up.” Adrien’s voice was harsh. “Can Danilo be convinced?”

“Maybe, but it isn’t the house of D’Ambrosio you should worry about.”

“And who should I worry about, Gregorio?”

“Marcello Rovigatti leads the Sanguinarium now, and you and his mother, Velia, have never been on good terms.”

Adrien gave a snort. “That’s not true, once we were on very…intimate terms. That might be why she wanted my heart that one time.”

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demoulins @ 2015-04-10T09:17:00

2015-04-10T13:19:22Z

((Because mind wandering before bed leads to writing stuff))

Danilo cuffed the boy in the back of his head and gave a satisfied smile when Nicolae fell silent. “Watch your mouth. That kind of talk invites more than just a slap.”

Nicolae looked over at his father, but Adrien only nodded in agreement with the elder vampire. The boy rubbed at his head. “But…I thought you were the one who always said humans are beneath us.”

“And yet you like one of them.” Danilo raised an eyebrow at Nicolae.

The boy ducked his head as his cheeks flushed. He mumbled, “I guess.”

Danilo nodded softly at the expected answer. “Then, try to remember that you don’t want the first throat her new fangs tear into to be yours. Treat her with respect and remember, even if she is only human, she is as deadly as you.”

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demoulins @ 2015-04-10T09:15:00

2015-04-10T13:17:50Z

The day after their encounter with the vampire, Anthony felt a little off, but blew it off as stress. Stress, like learning that not only do vampires exist, but they are more than happy to kill without a second thought. He’d gone to sleep that night feeling like his skin, especially his scalp and his neck, were crawling, but he woke feeling nothing but a vague nausea. When he peeled the bandages from his face and neck it was to find the skin already closed and the marks from the vampire’s attack barely visible.

When the light filtering in through the blinds started to give him a headache, he figured it was another of his migraines and called out from work. Taking some of his medication, he drew the curtains in the bedroom and went to sleep with the cat curled up warm beside him instead of Bri.

And then he woke again. He had no idea what time it was, but it was dark outside. His blood was on fire. It was as if he was boiling from the inside out, but at the same time, when he tossed aside the covers, he started shivering so badly that he had to scramble after them. He curled under the covers, in agony from the migraine and the fever. When the big Maine Coon sniffed at him and he could hear her heartbeat echoing in his head as if it was trying to shatter him, he knew something was wrong. His stomach cramped, and his moan of pain scared her away.

When Brianna got home from work later that night, it was to find Anthony curled on the kitchen floor with the refrigerator door wide open and the contents ransacked. The stew meat she’d been saving for soup had been ripped open, but he’d vomited up most of what he ate. The water was running, and the vomit in the sink was mixed with blood. Her gasp woke him up, and she had to stifle a startled scream when she saw his eyes. Bright red, glinting faintly in the light from the refrigerator. When he coughed, she could see long fangs.

He moaned. “Bri? Jesus, Bri, I don’t feel right.” It sounded like him, and for a moment she almost rushed to him, fangs or no fangs, but then his eyes locked on her and she stood stock still. “So hungry, Bri. What’s going on?” His voice sounded unsure, but his eyes had lost everything that made them human. He tensed, and she could feel her pulse begin to race. His nose flared, and he cocked his head as if he could hear it.

She bit her lip and took a deep breath. She wanted to tell him. She wanted to help him. But with him looking at her like that, all she could do was back away. “I don’t know, baby. But I’m going to find someone who does. Stay here, okay?”

He shook his head, as if clearing it, and settled back down to the kitchen floor, moaning. “Yeah, okay. Hurry up, Bri baby? God, this is gonna kill me.”

She blinked away tears as she backed away, only daring to turn her back when she was within reach of the door. She locked the apartment door behind her and ran to her car.

She needed her grandfather.

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demoulins @ 2015-04-10T09:05:00

2015-04-10T13:16:05Z

Adrien’s fangs grazed Anthony’s neck, but before he could lick away the blood that welled to the surface, Brianna swung one of the broken chair legs at his head. The vampire was suddenly gone, like a nightmare, and Anthony crumpled to the ground.

Brianna rushed to his side. The vampire had been holding him by his braids, and in a few places, his scalp bled where they’d been pulled far too much. The wound on his neck was small by comparison, just two small pin pricks. There were drops of blood across his face, from his hair, she thought. His skin was clammy and pale, his breathing shallow. He was unconscious, but his muscles twitched, as if he was trying to wake up. “Come on, baby, wake up. I need you to wake up. You know I can’t carry you back down those stairs.”

Anthony coughed and licked his lips, licking away one of the drops of blood. “Goddamn. Knew we shoulda just gone with delivery and a movie.” With her help, he pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. The world swam as he moved, but the vertigo was fading fast, and after a moment or two, he was able to stand on his own. As they headed for the stairs, Brianna missed the faint flush of red in his eyes.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Adrien swiped at his forehead as he hurried away from the building. When his hand came away wet with blood, he snarled. The bitch was good, he had to admit. A lot of raw talent to be honed, in the right hands.

He couldn’t wait to kill her.

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demoulins @ 2015-04-10T09:05:00

2015-04-10T13:06:14Z

“Look, this isn’t a battle of good and evil, here. Well, not the Good and Evil.” He was shaky, pacing, a mouse with a cigarette and a lighter. “These are people. Just like you and me. Well, not really like you and me. They’re backwards, see? Born greedy, self absorbed. Nothing human at all. Then life happens an’ they got a choice. Embrace the evil or, ah…”

"Or what? They choose to be monsters?”

“Or live their lives like everyone else, I guess. I guess I really haven’t seen one of them…you know, actually do that.”

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The D'Ambrosio family

2015-04-10T13:05:31Z

The D’Ambrosio twins rule jointly over their family’s territory and their seat on the council. They are two of only three surviving original vampires, and they claim Venice and the surrounding area as their hunting grounds.

Danilo D’Ambrosio is the hotter tempered of the two. He believes very strongly in vampire supremacy and their policy of keeping humans in the dark. He’s deeply involved in human politics and has been subtly influencing political races for centuries. What his money can’t buy, his magic can tip in his favor. Oddly enough, the volcanic temper drops away at home, and Danilo is a dedicated family man, helping his wife, Kelly, with Antonio and the twins.

Gregorio D’Ambrosio is the quieter of the two brothers. Cold and logical, he’s been accused of being as unfeeling as some of the machines he favors. Gregorio is a former priest who turned to the dark arts and now heads a team of vampires who use a blend of sorcery and technology to try to isolate and remove the weaknesses in the vampire condition. Most of the household, their staff, and the assorted hangers-on and lab assistants assume Gregorio is married to his work, but he and Dylan Woods have been sneaking out for long walks with Priest…

Kelly D’Ambrosio is Danilo’s wife. She’s been a vampire for five years now. In addition to her thriving sculpture business, she also has three children under the age of six. Given the difficulty that vampire women have with pregnancy, balancing her work, her health, and her family life is an immense source of pride for her.

Antonio, Cecilia, and Salvatore D’Ambrosio are Kelly and Danilo’s young children. Antonio is the oldest and so far wants nothing more than to learn to be a knight. His father indulges him with sword practice. Cecilia and Salvatore are twin babies at the moment. Salvatore spends a lot of his time in and out of his uncle’s lab, being treated for all manner of childhood illnesses.

Dylan Woods, a human musician. He doesn’t know about vampires and assumes Gregorio is an entirely ordinary overworked research doctor living with his politician brother and his family. Dylan is an American, a cousin of Kelly’s, and is using music studies in Venice as an excuse to keep an eye on Danilo for Kelly’s family. Dylan and Danilo do not get along, but Gregorio has so far managed to smooth over all of their fights.

Priest is the family’s greyhound. The dog is especially fond of Gregorio, and they’re a common sight along the canals at night.

Leonzio D’Ambrosio is one of Danilo’s grown children. He was born before they were cursed, and though he’s second generation, he’s far older than a lot of the vampires sitting on the council. Leonzio lives in Canada and rarely keeps in contact with the rest of his family. He and his father do not get along.

Frediano D’Ambrosio is another of Danilo’s grown children. He’s almost three hundred years old and is the former head of the Sanguinarium, the Council’s police. He still works with the group and is living in London at the moment.

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The Hero of the Story

2015-04-10T13:03:57Z

Brianna Wilson is 25. She grew up in south Georgia in the city of Valdosta. Her father was a pipe fitter and her mother was a waitress. She was considered lower middle class growing up. Her family had a house out near the Air Force base, and many of her childhood friends were the children of fighter pilots.

She wanted out of Georgia, and when she went to college, she went to live with an aunt in Florida and attended the University of South Florida. She double majored in journalism and business. She interned with a few different companies in Tampa while she was in school, and once she was out, she got a job with the Tampa Tribune. She’s been with the Tampa Tribune for two years and she’s now being given assignments of her own.

She’s due to take a vacation soon, to visit her grandfather in France. He’s a caretaker for an old castle in Moulins, and the family is worried because he’s fallen more silent than usual. They suspect he may be developing dementia, as his last letter to them was very strange. She’s promised to check on him and help to get him set up to move to the US if he’s not well.

She’s looking forward to some much needed time off, though. Time she’s not going to have.

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Prologue

2015-04-10T12:58:58Z

On May 23, 1940, while all eyes were on Germany, a great evil was quietly laid to rest in hallowed ground in France. The lives lost and the sacrifices made to put an end to one of the last great vampire bloodlines were forgotten to the danger from the east. All that remained of that great struggle was a tomb near an old, crumbling castle and the young vampire hunter set as groundskeeper, to keep an eye on the undead.

Two Months Ago

Exactly an hour before sunset, Robert N'Daiye set down his rake and reached for his cane. Leaning heavily on the battered wood, he left his garden and started down the rocky path past the castle ruins. The evenings were beginning to get chilly, and he pulled his scarf closer around him as he walked. His breath could be seen as frequent, short puffs that grew more labored as he walked. He eyed the overgrown path. It got less and less attention from him as the years went by. Weeds grew freely in the gravel. Bushes and trees slowly pushed their way into the path. Nature was trying to win back this small section of the French countryside, and Robert no longer had the energy to fight it back.

As gravel gave way to mud, he paused, and then pulled out his flashlight and peered closely at the ground. Footprints winded their way up the trail towards the ruins, footprints not accompanied by his cane. With a shaking hand, he patted his side and the old revolver shoved into his coat pocket, then he started up the path. He called out as he went, “Is anyone there? You shouldn’t be here. The ruins are dangerous.” When lights flashed ahead of him, he hurried up the path, out of breath by the time he reached the castle gate.

The lock on the gate had been cut and tossed away, and the rusted iron stood open. The stone entrance was marked with fresh paint. Kids. Robert leaned on the gate and tried to catch his breath as he surveyed the courtyard beyond. “You…you really need to leave. You’ll get hurt in there. Can you hear me?” He held onto the wall for support as he started through the gate.

He didn’t get far. As he passed a pitch-black doorway, he heard movement within, and he turned. A leg moved out of sight through another doorway ahead of him, and Robert immediately followed. “Stop! Stop right now!” He almost fell as he hurried to catch up to the fleeing intruder.

They descended, the intruder always just disappearing out of Robert’s sight. The stone stairs grew wet and the air around them hung dank and stale. Robert came to a halt and held his chest, coughing as he surveyed his surroundings. “You need to leave this…” A scream cut him off. Robert cursed and rushed into the darkness.

In the doorway to a darkened room, he stopped and shined his flashlight around. There, in the center, a sight made his heart falter. A coffin stood open. A trail of blood led away from the coffin, and Robert followed it with his flashlight, until the light fell upon a lump of rags and wide, glassy eyes slumped against the wall. Robert reached up to cross himself, but before he even finished the movement, a strong hand pulled him around.

“What are you doing in my house?” The vampire’s flesh was stretched tight across his bones. He was discolored and desiccated, like a mummy. His clothes hung in rotten tatters around him, with a clear hole over his heart. The flesh there had not yet sealed, and inside, Robert could see wriggling maggots and the wet, ruined mass of his heart. The vampire grabbed Robert by his shirt collar and hoisted him up to eye level. His long, talon-like nails dug into Robert’s throat as the vampire pushed him into a wall. He leaned over him, red eyes glaring from behind long, unkempt blond hair. His mouth was stained with blood. He said, softly, “I asked you. What are you doing in my house?”

Robert’s heart beat erratically. He hung there, wheezing from exertion and fear, staring at the red blood that drenched the vampire’s body. When he found the strength to look up, his gaze caught on the vampire’s small fangs and could go no further. He closed his eyes and murmured a prayer. “The cross of Christ be with me. The cross of Christ overcomes all water and every fire.” He fumbled at his shirt, and the vampire barked out a laugh and let him go.

“I simply asked why you’re here. But you don’t need to answer now. As if the beating of your heart wasn’t enough, I recognize your voice. The young hunter.” One gnarled hand splayed on the wall behind Robert as the vampire leaned over him, baring his fangs. “We have history, you and I.”

Robert shook his head, almost violently. “I…I’m just the groundskeeper! There was a boy! I didn’t want him to get hurt in the ruins, that’s it, I swear!”

The vampire spat blood in Robert’s face, and his free hand curled around Robert’s neck. “Don’t lie to me. I do know you. We never met in battle, but the Order conspired to help you and your people put me down, didn’t they?” He grinned and stroked Robert’s neck. “I’ve heard you up there, year after year. Decades, you’ve been here. You’ve never wavered, have you?” His nail dug harder, slicing open the thin skin. “There’s enough blood left in the boy to take the worst of the edge off of my hunger. Should I let you live, I wonder?”

Robert’s free hand closed around the revolver in his pocket. He gave a cry as he pulled it out and shot. He fell with a sickening crunch of bone as the vampire shoved him away and huddled against the wall, clutching at his ruined stomach.

The vampire laughed softly. His dark, viscous blood already stopped flowing, and the bullet wound was beginning to heal. “Death it is, then.” He whirled in the blink of an eye, crushing the hand holding the gun before tearing out Robert’s throat with his teeth. “Pity.” He bent his head to the blood and began to feed.

Robert’s tongue darted out. He licked away the blood on his face. And then he gave a last, shuddering breath.

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OOC

2015-04-10T01:36:48Z

I have not died! I have some more writing I need to move over here that I'll do tomorrow when I'm not half asleep from work. Also I have a community post to put up, but that will have to wait for tomorrow too.

I'd like to have some exciting excuse for disappearing, but really work just got very busy, I went through a bit of a depressed spell, and I didn't feel like writing at all. And once I did, it was all over on Tumblr. So yeah.

I have more writing that is canon for Adrien and it'll be posted here from Tumblr tomorrow, along with the community post I owe.

Until then, goodnight though, because I am exhausted.

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Muserevival Prompt 80.4

2014-11-04T04:20:07Z

"Sorry I'm not sorry"

"Mr. Stevens I was offering you a handsome reward for your service. Your children's education, paid for. Your home, saved from foreclosure. A generous monthly check. You're throwing it back at me for what? Misguided pop culture?" Adrien frowned at the man on the floor.

Gary Stevens huddled on the floor, holding a towel to his bleeding neck. "What you are is wrong. If I'd known I'd be serving as...some kind of snack for a monster, I'd never have agreed! Christ, what if I ended up infected?"

"I would suggest not trying to break my nose if you don't want to end up like me." Adrien's nose had stopped bleeding fairly quickly, but a paper towel in his hand attested to the injury. "If you don't want to serve, fine. But I warn you, Mr. Stevens. If you don't work for me, your time is limited, at best. And I already know your family won't miss you. What, with the way you treat your wife and daughters, they might be secretly greatful."

Gary lunged upwards and grabbed at Adrien's suit jacket. He tried to cock a fist back, tried to swing, but he was still too woozy from Adrien's bite, and it was child's play for the vampire to push him back to the floor. "Don't you bring them into this! I provide for Shelley and the girls!"

"That's why she threatened you with divorce if you didn't go to AA meetings, I'm sure." Adrien said this quietly, but the stare he pinned the man with was venomous. "I'm sorry, Mr. Stevens, but I'm afraid I won't lose any sleep over your death."

"Bastard thing!" Gary lunged to his feet again, but the vampire caught him easily, and with a quick twist, the man's body fell bonelessly at Adrien's feet.

The vampire grimaced and looked towards the unseen camera. "Disgusting display. Take note, Nicky. There are some people for whom we mustn't waste too much time dealing with. They aren't worth our pity."

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demoulins @ 2014-11-03T20:05:00

2014-11-04T01:08:09Z

Doing a few overhauls on some information about the vampires in Adrien's world. Nothing that will effect any existing RP in any way, just a few picky points that I want to adjust after getting some new ideas.

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