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thenashira2025-08-17 07:10 pm
nashiramods) wrote in thenashira2025-08-17 07:10 pm
Entry tags:
June II Event Log
Who: Everyone! (That's right, even you)
What: The Nova Knights investigate Nautis's security concerns and Duet 77, but it seems that more than one Harbinger is in play here...
When: June 23 - June 30
Where: Chalra City
Event Results ⭐︎ 🎶 Recommended Listening: Smiling & Singing a Song - Hello, Happy World!〈lyrics〉 ♪
june ii event log
EPISODE 4: Duels in Duet? Unlocking the Secret Stage!
June 23 - June 30
TIMELINE
6/23-6/30 Aquarium Cleanup & Midnight Diner
6/23 Investigate: Shelley Lustre
6/25 Investigate: Track & Trace
6/27 Investigate: Duet 77
6/30 Showdown: Amplitudina
It's another eventful month for the Nova Knights, but at least all eight of them come home at the end of it. The Aquarium is looking a lot better, but there are still some repairs that will need to be made before they can fill it with fish. The Midnight Diner has hosted most of the Nova Knights this week — perhaps some of them will even become regulars. Master's little hole in the wall is never less than anything welcoming.
On the 23rd, Maya and Mutsumi try and fail to learn more about Prince Shellustria's alter ego, while the Harbingers in turn learn more about the Nova Knights' Magic. After Shellustria realizes his identity has been compromised, he becomes a good deal more careful in concealing his movements.
On the 25th, Dirk and Natalia find the solution to Nautis's security concerns at Random Access Lock & Key — the owner, York, is a hacker for hire with an implanted (and highly experimental) AI named Delta. It seems that one of the Harbingers hired her to look into the security around Lucky Stars in the hopes that she might stumble upon the source of the signal that broke into the Abyss. But once the Nova Knights make contact, it seems to tip off the enemy, and they're soon attacked by techno shrimp from the Abyss, who were apparently conjured with Dream domain magic — that is, by someone other than Prince Shellustria.
Having just learned that not only is magic real, there are also magical alien bad guys trying to dominate their planet, York is more than happy to help the Nova Knights defend Earth. What can a hacker-locksmith and her trusty AI do to help them? That remains to be seen, but York is now a friend of the Nova Knights and can be called on whenever the Nova Knights need her help. She doesn't know anyone's secret identities and she's not prying, either — if anything, she seems kind of tickled to now be in the know about the city's (largely) teenage evil-fighting magic superheroes, and she'll keep their secret as long as they keep hers.
Nautis is none too pleased with the discovery even if it does have a relatively happy ending. If anything, the knowledge that she'd been discovered by a perfectly mundane, non-magical human being and Earth-created artificial intelligence, puts her in a spectacularly foul mood for the rest of the week. Delta and Nautis do not seem to get along. What a shocker.
On the 27th, Maya, Mutsumi, and Natalia conduct their investigation at Duet 77...by renting out a room and doing some karaoke together! On top of having a great time, they discover both the energy harvesting plot and the Secret Stage where the Abyssal monster Amplitudina guards the stolen energy. On the 30th, Hope and Dirk venture to Duet 77 to confront her once and for all, and with great success — not only do they win the fight, they manage to avoid any serious harm to themselves or the establishment, and thus another Harbinger plot is foiled!
What: The Nova Knights investigate Nautis's security concerns and Duet 77, but it seems that more than one Harbinger is in play here...
When: June 23 - June 30
Where: Chalra City
june ii event log
EPISODE 4: Duels in Duet? Unlocking the Secret Stage!
June 23 - June 30
TIMELINE
6/23-6/30 Aquarium Cleanup & Midnight Diner
6/23 Investigate: Shelley Lustre
6/25 Investigate: Track & Trace
6/27 Investigate: Duet 77
6/30 Showdown: Amplitudina
It's another eventful month for the Nova Knights, but at least all eight of them come home at the end of it. The Aquarium is looking a lot better, but there are still some repairs that will need to be made before they can fill it with fish. The Midnight Diner has hosted most of the Nova Knights this week — perhaps some of them will even become regulars. Master's little hole in the wall is never less than anything welcoming.
On the 23rd, Maya and Mutsumi try and fail to learn more about Prince Shellustria's alter ego, while the Harbingers in turn learn more about the Nova Knights' Magic. After Shellustria realizes his identity has been compromised, he becomes a good deal more careful in concealing his movements.
On the 25th, Dirk and Natalia find the solution to Nautis's security concerns at Random Access Lock & Key — the owner, York, is a hacker for hire with an implanted (and highly experimental) AI named Delta. It seems that one of the Harbingers hired her to look into the security around Lucky Stars in the hopes that she might stumble upon the source of the signal that broke into the Abyss. But once the Nova Knights make contact, it seems to tip off the enemy, and they're soon attacked by techno shrimp from the Abyss, who were apparently conjured with Dream domain magic — that is, by someone other than Prince Shellustria.
Having just learned that not only is magic real, there are also magical alien bad guys trying to dominate their planet, York is more than happy to help the Nova Knights defend Earth. What can a hacker-locksmith and her trusty AI do to help them? That remains to be seen, but York is now a friend of the Nova Knights and can be called on whenever the Nova Knights need her help. She doesn't know anyone's secret identities and she's not prying, either — if anything, she seems kind of tickled to now be in the know about the city's (largely) teenage evil-fighting magic superheroes, and she'll keep their secret as long as they keep hers.
Nautis is none too pleased with the discovery even if it does have a relatively happy ending. If anything, the knowledge that she'd been discovered by a perfectly mundane, non-magical human being and Earth-created artificial intelligence, puts her in a spectacularly foul mood for the rest of the week. Delta and Nautis do not seem to get along. What a shocker.
On the 27th, Maya, Mutsumi, and Natalia conduct their investigation at Duet 77...by renting out a room and doing some karaoke together! On top of having a great time, they discover both the energy harvesting plot and the Secret Stage where the Abyssal monster Amplitudina guards the stolen energy. On the 30th, Hope and Dirk venture to Duet 77 to confront her once and for all, and with great success — not only do they win the fight, they manage to avoid any serious harm to themselves or the establishment, and thus another Harbinger plot is foiled!
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"Who said they were?" Not him.
Having thus brushed her off without sacrificng an ounce of ego, he continues onto the mission.
"Sure. I'm not exactly discreet in these colours."
Even a mind as relentlessly absurdist as Nova Pastos' struggles to conjure a scenario in which his costuming would count as anything but tropically aposematic. The MET gala, maybe. Or magic. He hasn't been at this long, but if there's one thing he's learned, it's that there's always some kind of bullshit when it comes magic.
Irrelevant. Eyes on the prize.
"What kind of distraction are we talking? Am I just keeping them busy with talk or is this a property damage situation? Do you want them out of the building? I can get on the roof no problem."
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She'd be the first to admit it's not really a plan. They don't know how York is contacting Nautis, and Natalia isn't sure what to look for.
But it's a perfect plan. Simple, bold, barely any points of failure.
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While they've been talking, Dirk's eyes have been wandering. It hasn't been obvious--he's moved his head a little, but most of the work has been done behind the sick coolguy shades. Cameras spotted and their range logged away in his brain, noting overlap and (lack of) blind spots. Most of them aren't obvious. In fact, they're very well concealed. It makes him wonder if the one he can see out front here is more for show.
"Give me a second to look around."
He starts walking around to the back before he even finishes his sentence, his face forward to cover for the fact that his eyes are still moving. He turns his head only to share a glance with Cal, then tilts the marionette's head forward to meet his in consultation as he walks. It's like they're sharing secrets. His mouth doesn't move, but the puppet cackles in response to something, turning to look back at Natalia.
Lil Cal's laugh is grating and loud. A jeering HEE HEE HOO HOO HAA HAA that almost rings off the walls, thanks to Dirk's ventriloquist skills.
Natalia can follow them to the back of the shop, or not.
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Take your time, but let me know when to begin my side of the operation.
She begins to move into position. She can't be sure about sight lines on the roof, but she knows the area well enough she can afford to lose sight of the place flanking around to the back-- as an athlete she's faster than many.
She keeps her book open, waiting.
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There are some options here for how this will play out. Either their mystery proprietor keeps an eye on the cameras, or they don't. If they don't, then anything he does will come as a surprise and this prep is largely performative.
But Nova Pastos is betting that they do keep an eye on those cameras. Which means they may have already been spotted, and the mystery proprietor knows he's moving around. That's fine, but Dirk doesn't want to draw their attention to the back door. So he keeps moving, only ever turning his face to look up at the roof or at the buildings nearby. He turns Cal's head to look at a couple nearby buildings and fistbumps him once, in the process.
He does love an opportunity to hang with his best bro.
The two of them do a cool lap around the building before Nova Pastos peels away--wandering off down a side street, where he opens his phone out of sight of any cameras.
No blind spots in the back for you. But the roof is easy-access. So don't hang around at the back door and wait until you see me on the roof.Message delivered. And this side street is narrow enough for wall jumping, which gets him up.
Sure, he could use his magical powers to do it, but he doesn't need 'em. Not for baby stuff like this.
Jumping from roof to roof is easy, and he makes sure to take an extra-exaggerated running leap onto the roof of Random Access Lock and Key, landing on both feet with no roll. Solid, and loud.
With deliberate indifference, he strides to the corner, where he crouches and adjusts his hold on Lil Cal before dangling him off the edge.
The puppet's face swings down directly into the lens of a camera.
The deliberate public nuisance energy is off the charts immediately.
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Why are her lockpicks the tools of Anubis--
No. No, it's fine, they'll work just the same. Probably better. She gets a sightline on the front, waits only long enough for York to take the bait, and then slips to the back door.
These fucking things better work.
SORRY FOR THE NOVEL I TRIED TO KEEP IT SHORT AND FAILED
And now some colorfully-dressed dipshit has parkoured his way on top of the building and is dancing around on the fucking roof for, as far as she can tell, the express purpose of being a jackass. When her little onboard passenger informs her of the camera activity, she flips the sign on the door to CLOSED and goes into the room she very generously calls her "office" to check the security feeds.
"Oh, you've gotta be fuckin' kidding me," she mutters. Is it not bad enough that she has to deal with this? Does there also need to be a creepy puppet involved? Whatever happened to being a normal public nuisance, like, doing graffiti and loitering menacingly outside of convenience stores? What do they put in the water here, anyway?
The surveillance is just that — surveillance. It's not like she's got a defense system up there, although she's starting to regret not installing one. Short of climbing up onto the roof herself or some really annoying birds, she can't exactly make him leave. And she doesn't like the way he's moving. Not because of the doll — that's creepy, too — but because she gets the sense that this guy has figured out that there's more than just a couple of cameras up there, and she can count on one hand the number of reasons someone might be looking for her specifically. And none of them are good. Public nuisance would really be the preferred outcome here.
York heaves a sigh. She can't believe she's contemplating getting onto the roof just to chase this guy down. She'd really rather know who the hell it is first, but even Delta's facial recognition software is failing. It can't just be the shades. Man, this is really shooting a hole in her plans for the day. York heaves a sigh and starts shedding her jacket. She can let Delta keep plugging away at their assignment while she —
York, comes Delta's voice in her mind, someone is attempting to pick the lock on the back door. After a moment he adds, I do not believe she is adequately prepared to disarm the alarm system.
York lets out a groan. The back door to the shop doesn't lead directly into this room — this one is a little more secure — but she still doesn't like someone trying to get in the back door. It suggests an unpleasant relationship with the asshole hanging out on the roof of the building right now. Pissed off old employer? Pissed off new employer? She supposes she's about to find out in short order.
"D, kill that connection. We've got a foothold, we can get back in later. I need you keeping an eye on those cameras in case they've got someone on standby to get into the security system."
I have adequate processing power for multitasking, Delta says, a bit pointedly, but he complies anyway. York leaves the door of her office slightly ajar as she glances toward the back of the shop — no windows, but Delta's got eyes on the similarly gaudily-dressed weirdo back there — and then thoughtfully up at the high ceiling, criss-crossed with lighting fixtures and bare piping. Maybe she'll just tuck herself out of sight and let the girl in the back finish trying to break in.
Re: SORRY FOR THE NOVEL I TRIED TO KEEP IT SHORT AND FAILED
Namely, temples protect the sacred from the profane. This lock, this door, in its own way, is doing just this. And so, when Neos presses pick to lock, she extends her Domain and asks politely as one who rules.
It sounds almost like a raking attack as the lock arranges itself to unlock. The latch pops open, and the alarm doesn't go off at all as she pulls open the door. After all, she is a temple, herself, and ruler of them.
... it's too quiet. Too empty. Neos keeps her guard up as she enters.
GOD FORBID YOU WRITE IN THE WRITING HOBBY
And another. This time Cal can be seen (and possibly heard) laughing. Then he checks the back--Neos is gone. She must be in.
He drops down, Cal seated regally(?) in the crook of one arm as he appears in the doorway--an expressionless puppetmaster in pink shorts--to have a look inside.
I TRY TO KEEP IT REASONABLE OKAY
York, the intruder has gained entry. Delta sounds terse. Well, he's always terse, but terse even for Delta. And she has bypassed my security system.
York's teeth close over a would-be curse. What the hell happened to the alarm?
She...disarmed it. He sounds troubled now. She should not have been able to do that.
Well, shit. That raises a lot more questions than it answers, and York doesn't like that. Doesn't like that one bit at all. And while she's nestled upside-down and out of sight among the pipes and fixtures on the ceiling, she has a line of sight to the front door, and she's just momentarily distracted by something else she doesn't like at all.
Oh my god, what is that guy doing now?
Unclear. I believe it could be best categorized as "loitering".
Yeah, try taunting. Who the hell are these guys? You got any ID yet?
Negative.
You got any good news for me today, D? What are the odds that our latest employer sent these guys? Early termination of contract, you think?
I lack sufficient data for concrete analysis. May I suggest that we collect more data?
Yeah, yeah, York's just as unhappy about this as Delta is. With a little inward sigh, she crosses Chalra City out on her mental Atlace roadmap. Okay, let's give 'em a light show, D. Let's see how much these guys actually know about what they're looking for.
She has Delta encrypt that last critical log to his limited personal storage and instructs him to delete all other local copies and run a standard host of what York likes to call "oh shit, we're being audited" protocols that delete certain sets of data and partially replace them with dummy data, making for a confusing mess that usually tangles up a data analysis long enough for the trail to go cold. Once the necessary files have been deleted, Delta throws up a rather conspicuous "DELETING FILES" graphic on one of the monitors, complete with slowly filling progress bar. The indicator lights on every piece of equipment in the room start lighting up like crazy, and the sliver of room visible through the door York had left ajar is flashing with colored light.
Re: I TRY TO KEEP IT REASONABLE OKAY
So, when the shop exploded in alarms, after she passed in...
No obvious alarm systems... which means York set it off.
Oh, York. I hoped it wasn't you... Neos resigned herself to fate. "Pastos, I leave the computer to you. The attacker is still here."
Reasonable, aka "this was fun to read and I am kicking my feet delightedly?"
All right. This is what he came for.
Now there's two options. Either this is actually what this person has customised their setup to do--which strikes Nova Pastos as a really stupid way to operate, but he can't say he'd be above doing it himself for kicks--or it's bait.
He turns away from that monitor and picks a machine. Cal supervises from over his shoulder as he finds a connected keyboard and starts looking for an in--he's more interested in spotting changes than he is in trying to understand the whole system right off the bat.
Unfortunately for Neos' visibility, the crazy lights keep going as Pastos gets down to business. For once, his decision to wear his shades 24/7 is externally justified.
"Is hoping we have photosensitive epilepsy part of the defence protocol? I've been in clubs with less strobe and flash," he mutters, because he just can't keep that kind of thought to himself.
then i hope to keep entertaining you
As soon as the puppet-bearing weirdo's attention is fixed on the computer, the door to the office, conveniently refitted with electronic security, closes behind him with the unmistakable hum and click of an electronic lock. Now he can choose between trying to get out of the room and getting into her system. If nothing else, it'll slow him down enough to let York deal with the intruder who came in through the back.
York lets Delta spend a long second running probability scenarios while she considers the situation for a moment herself. She could just run. She could make a pretty clean getaway through the back door from her position, and Delta agrees that those are their best odds of finding someplace else to disappear for a while. A shame, really, this place has really grown on her.
But that wouldn't answer any of her many, many questions, because if an employer's coming after her for a job they're probably not gonna stop here, and this is the weirdest cleanup crew she's ever seen.
The element of surprise is her best advantage here, and she's going to lose it the second it occurs to the intruder below to look up. Not a lot of time for planning. York's next best chance is ending this quick and getting a few answers — and then, probably, book it for the train station and buy the next ticket out of here.
D, give me a distraction. I really wanna get the jump on her.
Quite literally.
Executing, says Delta, and the cash register on the counter rings loudly. Hoping to take advantage of even just a half-second's distraction, York unhooks her boots from the pipes she'd been using as footholds, gets herself a little momentum, and drops from the ceiling to tackle Natalia from above with the aim to get her in a hold long enough to assess the situation and let Delta formulate a plan from there.
Such Is A Noble's Prerogative
Too late. York gets the drop on her, and the initial scuffle's in her favor. And the fact is, she's just not as strong as a full-grown adult, no matter how close she is in fact and how well she's trained so far.
But she does know her stone armor is heavy and so she backs York towards one of the workbenches. She's. Loath to pull out Body-Temple Aspect, but... "This body... my Temple."
There's a faint, silvery lightshow and she reaches for one of the tools on the workbench. The first to come to hand will do, she's aiming to break York's grip.
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She gets a leg behind her, planting one booted foot on the wall over the workbench, and tries to push Neos back in an attempt to keep anything handy out of her reach. She's gotta start talking real fast before this situation gets away from her completely. Oh boy does she not love this.
"Hey, listen," she says with a grunt of effort in her voice, "while I'd love to get my cardio in for the day early, how about we skip this part and you just tell me who you are and what you want?"
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"-- Nova Neos." In the interest of opsec she gestures her head towards the Caramelldansen next door. "Friend of mine found your attack on a server, we came to see. Who's your partner?"
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But at least she's gotten this girl to talk. And York has no desire to be hit with any metal object, even a little iron file, so she releases what has honestly already been rendered a pretty ineffective hold and puts as much distance between them as she can in the narrow shop.
"Okay, how about we continue this conversation without any improvised weapons in our hands?" York holds her empty hands up, a show of solidarity. "I don't think you've got my whole number. This isn't a partnership situation. I'm just a hired hand."
So mercenary hacking isn't exactly morally squeaky clean, sure, but at least she can safely say that she has no personal investment in whatever it is she was hired to track down. These guys, however, clearly do. Vigilante counter-hackers? But this girl looks like she's barely an adult and that's not the ideal age bracket when recruiting for hard muscle.
"Okay, so what's your interest in this server? And please tell me it has something to do with your colorful getups because I gotta be honest, it's really throwing me for a loop."
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Right now? Right now, she hums. How much to tell? She drops the file on the concrete floor, keeping her guard up. She'll help unbind its teeth later, if necessary. "It's our server."
Reason enough, she suspects, to satisfy York. "And we suspect the short list of who is interested in our server is very short indeed."
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He glances at it--that much he does. But he doesn't even bother to shrug it off. He just looks at it and then goes back to what he was doing, which is getting up to--and into--as much as he can, as quickly as he can.
Whatever happens outside of this room now is not his problem.
Unless he hears his own name and an explicit request from help being shouted from beyond that locked door, anyway. Then he'll move.
Until then?
He's locked the fuck in.
His goal really is to see as much as he can see, and make sense of it as he goes. In the process, he's keeping an eye out for anything unique, anything different or new. He's not expecting to see anything so obvious as Nautis' name or anything like that; a that would definitely catch his eye, what he's looking for is more technical and granular.
Progress is complicated to gauge. He didn't going into this expecting to have it all open up for him all neat like a lotus flower, which is good because it sure doesn't. More of his experience has been in the vein of MAKING code than CRACKING it. But when his first few "easy" tricks don't work, he gets confirmation of it: whoever built all this is a cut well above the average hackercon attendee.
And irritating though it is, it's also exciting.
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He is attempting to break through the primary security layer, says Delta. Then, with almost barely detectable smugness, he adds, He is not succeeding.
Yeah, well, I'd be a lot more worried if he was. You keep him busy while I talk. Mix it up a little. Give the kid a moving target to work with.
Executing, acknowledges Delta, and at that point, the data Nova Pastos is sifting through starts changing, replaced with new data, the locations of other sets of data scrambled. You are working with live data, pal.
And now York can keep her attention safely on the alarmingly strong girl in the very weird cosplay. "Oh yeah?" she says, very noncommittally, to Neos's comment about how short that list is. This surprises her none; people usually come to her when the list is short, because she's discreet. These people, this approach? Decidedly not discreet, even if they'd done it by breaking and entering. And based on Delta's feedback, she's increasingly convinced that the "friend" who detected her probe and the guy in the office are not the same person.
York kicks her weight onto her back heel, a false sign of casualness, the vague illusion of letting her guard down. She's in an interesting position here: if they're looking for identifying information about her employer, then she's got no useful information for them, but they have some information she wouldn't mind having. Call it necessary context.
"And who does that make you? You did break into my shop. I think a self-introduction is the least can do. Short of that, you can tell me what the hell you did to my alarm."
She nods her head towards the back door. She knows that whatever that was, it wasn't normal.
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She glances at the foot. She's not taken in. "I am, more properly, Neos, a Nova Knight. I don't know much of the particulars myself, but I'm sure you've heard of the 'fainting spell' epidemic. We've been tasked with looking into its causes and stopping it."
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She's heard the rumors about the rash of fainting spells breaking out across the city, and even Delta had noted the anomaly at one point, but it's pretty far from the territory of York's business so she hasn't paid much attention to it. This conversation is only making her more skeptical, because it sounds like absolute nonsense.
"Rrrrright." York takes a moment to really register Neos's appearance, and her brow wrinkles in disbelief. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't buy for a second that you and Officer Hotpants over there are in any way qualified to deal with a medical situation."
She spreads her hands. "So what was the plan here? Take me out and try to break into my system? Sounds like kind of a messy plan, and I don't like how it ends for me. You brought the wrong guy for the job, by the way. He's gonna be in there awhile."
At which point York expects to be long gone, because no job on the planet is worth dying for, and especially not at the hands of these weirdos.
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York, we have another intruder.
What, did a third costumed stooge show up to complete the trifecta? Awesome.
Negative, says Delta, sounding unhappy. Amending my previous statement: we have many more intruders. Origin: indeterminate. Approaching on your six.
"Oh, come on," York says aloud as she pivots to look behind her just as a wave of what look like mechanical shrimp, each roughly the size of a human hand, begin to crawl out from behind and under the workbenches, shelves, and other equipment lining the wall. It's hard to say where they came from, since they're too big to have literally come through the woodwork. Though they skitter along on little metal legs, they move about in a very drone-like fashion, and they move quick. York surveys them with a grimace, then sighs. "Okay, now this is just overkill. You realize this is supervillain shit, right?"
no subject
They understandably swarmed her, and as she struggled to hold and bat them away, she shouted, "PASTOS! COMPANY!"
Something in her clicked. In Hassalean, she began to chant. "In need I am offered this strength:"
The gauntlets flashed that silver light, and became thicker, and spiked at the forearm and knuckles, then her legs the same.
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Fixed some pacing, extended a metaphor, sorry thank you
bless you
Re: bless you
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