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#science vs magic
arealphrooblem · 1 year
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Surrender Prompt Fills #2
Part two of @whither-wander-whump's amazing voluntary surrender prompts
CW: torture mention (but not torture) #body horror (what a healer mage could do to a body if they wanted to)
Part one here
- a character who is powerful, far more powerful than whoever has them cornered. But they extend their hands and let themself be taken, because if they don’t, someone less powerful will be hurt instead of them. They aren’t willing to live with that, so they go willingly.
The decision to surrender came easily. Perhaps part of them knew it would always end this way. Their ragtag group of mage rebels could only avoid detection for so long; eventually the location of their base had been compromised, as they always knew it would be. Swarms of soldiers exploded from the trees, as if they possessed magic themselves. They didn’t of course. They possessed something just as terrifying.
The General.
When the Mage stepped out of the temple with their hands in the air, every gun moved to aim at them. The General stood at the bottom of the steps, hands dangling within easy reach of his weapons. His second in command stood next to him, also pointing a gun at the Mage.
“Walk slowly,” The General called out. “Any of my men are altered I will burn this forest to the ground and everyone in it.”
The Mage fought an eye roll as they followed his command, taking the steps one at a time. Their hands did not so much as twitch.
“Isn’t this a bit overkill?” the second in command asked, voicing aloud the Mage’s thoughts. “They’ve already agreed to surrender. And they’re a healer mage. What are they going to do — heal our paper cuts? Cure my migraines?”
The General did not take his eyes off the Mage as they walked down the last few steps.
“A healer mage is trained to take control over the body. They could explode your heart in your chest, flood your brain with your own blood, block the electrical signals in the photoreceptors of your eyes so that you never see again. So no, this is not overkill.”
The second in command looked at the healer with fresh eyes, now hard with suspicion and fear. It was a depressingly familiar look in a world hostile to magic. And yes, the Mage could do all those things -- but if they had wanted to, they wouldn’t be a healer.
The cuffs were metal rounded cones that covered the Mage’s hands like iron mittens. They had to curl their fingers into fists to make them fit inside, which meant they couldn’t do the necessary movements to control the flow of their magic.
The Mage stood patiently, fists held out, while the General cuffed them with quick, efficient movements. He did not touch them any more than necessary, as if their skin would burn him, as if that was no exaggeration.
The Mage could feel every pair of eyes and the barrel of every gun trained on them. Panic started to climb up their chest, into their throat, and they couldn’t even channel their magic to calm themselves.
This was worth it. No matter what lay on the other end of this journey, the rest of their people could live another day. It was worth it.
Those words echoed as a mantra in their head as the General led them to his ship, the second in command’s gun pressed against their back. Sleek and fast, a scientific marvel that could break the sound barrier, it sat nestled and hidden in the forest. The Mage hadn’t even heard it touch down. If one of the apprentices hadn’t spotted the fleet in the air from the top of the temple, no one would have gotten free today.
“Sit,” the General said, pointing to a row of leather seats strapped to one wall.
The Mage obeyed.
“Cross your arms over your chest.”
The Mage obeyed. With that same efficiency, the General fastened the safety harness over their chest, trapping their arms. This time he lingered, testing the restraints, making sure the harness sat snugly against their chest, before he strapped himself into the chair next to them.
“If you kick, I will lock your feet together,” he warned.
The Mage nodded.
The General barked orders to his Second in the cockpit and the ship hummed to life, rising so smoothly and silently over the trees, only the gentle vibrations against their feet showed them any sign they had moved at all.
“You don’t need to be so afraid of me,” the Mage said softly. “If I liked hurting people, I wouldn’t be a healer.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” The denial came quick and sharp and utterly untrue. “I’ve just not stupid. I know what your people are capable of. I’ve seen it.”
The Mage could not deny the horror their own people were capable of, especially in response to the hostile society they lived in. But they weren’t the only ones capable of inhumanity.
“I didn’t give myself over blindly,” they said. “I know what your people are capable of, the kind of torture that awaits me. When I’m gifted the release of death, I know it will be slow and agonizing, and yet still a welcome relief. And I know that none of my people will come for me, because the loss of all those lives against your guns and machines is not worth keeping mine, especially when our numbers are so few now. So I will die alone and away from everything I love and the last thing I will ever know is excruciating pain.”
The General said nothing, but the Mage felt the weight of his gaze.
“So tell me,” they said, turning to meet it. “Who should be afraid of who right now?”
To their surprise, the General looked disquieted. “You seem remarkably calm for someone so afraid,” he said.
The Mage gave him a sorrowful shadow of a smile. ‘It’s a well trained lie. You should understand that, as a leader.”
The General’s gaze broke away, as if he could not bear to look at them any longer. He said nothing for the rest of the journey, and he did not look at the Mage again.
When they landed at the General’s headquarters in the heart of the city, far away from the peace of the hidden temple, the General waved off the second in command and led the Mage himself. The Mage followed, their pulse thundering in their ears, as he took them to the elevator.
His finger hovered over the basement floor button before jerking suddenly upwards, to a button on the top row. As if making a split second decision. The Mage dared not to question him as they followed him down lushly carpeted hallways, past framed artwork, and dark wood paneling.
They stopped at a door that required the General’s eye scan and fingerprint. It slid open to reveal . . .a sleek, beautiful apartment.
This time, the Mage could not hold back as he guided them inside.
“What are you doing? What is this place?”
The General said nothing as he led them down a short hallway and into what looked like a spare bedroom, devoid of all personal effects.
“This is where you stay until I decide what to do with you,” he said. “That door connects to a bathroom. Otherwise, you will not leave this room. You will not attempt escape in any way or any harm or alteration on my person or any vandalism of the apartment or I will have you tortured in all the ways you fear.”
The Mage swallowed, afraid to believe him. “And . . . where am I?”
The General fixed them with a stare, his expression a touch bewildered, as if he couldn’t believe himself.
“These are my quarters.”
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iamthespineofmybook · 9 months
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I think it'd be interesting to see a story where they have what's effectively modern technology, but the methodology of how the people of that world acheived it is with various types of magic instead of science and engineering.
So, for example, instead of mobile phones, they have communication stones, with the various stages of phone evolution being different sizes and types of stone, with the smart phone equivalent being something like a plate of obsidian or something.
I think the most fascinating thing for the whole concept is coming up with the equivalencies and then backtracking their development with how our world developed them.
Their version wouldn't even havr to look like ours, such as their commercial airlines using merely flying box instead of an entire airplane.
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vultureboi · 7 months
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DUDE THAT LOOKS LIKE ALL MIGHT IN HIS MEGA SUIT!!!
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twilightravenclaw · 11 months
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Luke Skywalker VS Harry Potter | DEATH BATTLE!
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lilbitofmac · 7 months
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Enemies to lovers ironstrange is probably like THE best flavor of the ship ngl
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palskippah · 5 months
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Hi!
I've seen people draw Bowser's dad or talk about him in fics, but I wanna think Bowser only had a mom :y just for the fun of it asdkaslkd
It's under a keep reading bc it's a tad bit long, if you'll read it then prepare for nonsensical rambling :y btw it's silly too
Like, she was a very big royal koopa queen who he doesn't remember because she left when he was too baby still (kicked the bucket 🧍) and Kamek (and Kammy) had to take care and raise him since then. And maybe Kamek jut did the bare minimum for him to remember her and Kammy actually put more effort into it- but it's because her death hurt Kamek too much.
Also he and the queen were in a sort of situationship JDKDHD
Anyone would notice he stared at her a bit too fondly, and Kammy made sure to let her sibling know he was being a lovesick fool and everyone could tell. Even the queen. Especially the queen.
But alas, she was the highest rank of royalty and Kamek was her advisor, so it would raise suspicion if they had something, he worried about people thinking they were colluding or something (my paranoid magikoopa that missed the chance of his life-)
She's just like Bowser but maybe beefier and more regal and likes to use her crown and jewelry always. She has a huge lot of confidence and is very assertive.
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But they have a close relationship, and one day she's like: "Kamek, may I ask you something? Not from queen to advisor."
"From friend to friend? :>" he says smiling. But the queen shakes her head.
"No, from gorgeous koopa queen to lovesick fool-"
And anyway, that's how she asks him out.
So, the queen (who maybe is called Magma River or something volcanic-themed like that, she gets called Queen River?) got fed up on waiting for the silly advisor to take the lead, so she did. And then she died. So there's that. And Bowser was barely a year old.
Anyways.
Like imagine Queen River had Bowser the same way Bowser had Junior. Also she can't change her size at will, so when Bowser hatches she's like ??? bc royal koopalings are very small, but she's not sure she's even seen one, and by the size of his egg, she thought he'd be small, but not that small.
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The baby is named after the queen's father, mostly because she pretends to have no idea what name to choose, so River unsubtly leaves it up to Kamek (and that makes him very joyful, bc naming a child is very important, and she's trusting him on it, as if he were the father 🙏- Kammy teases the hell out of him after they're out of the queen's hearing range)
So, they're prince Bowser the second :] (then they become he or whatvers jaskdja when Bowser's older)
-Anywaysss, imagine that in Bowser's castle, where there is this stone sculpture of his head in the front, is actually queen River's face- Bowser just looks way too much like her, sans the purple scales and shell, so the sculpture is never taken down, just like, reused as Bowser's?
-When years pass and Bowser's a toddler and then a kid, Kamek spoils the hell out of him. He gets him one hundred toys, let's the koopaling order him around, and even at times Bowser get very disrespectful and hits him- at that times it's Kammy who has to put her foot down, bc Queen River wouldn't have let her kid talk to anyone the way Bowser did to the servants or Kamek. The queen was straight forward and respectful of the staff- so Kammy tries to right Bowser's behavior now that he's small- it doesn't work very well, bc he still has an awful temper, but at least he treats the workers at the castle decently.
-Maybe the queen dies in a tragic way or whatever, and it has something to do with another kingdom, so they have a war and the koopas win and they have another kingdom to rule or whatevs. Also (here's more rambling) what if the Darklands is like a Yugoslavia (or something??) and Queen River did a great job of ruling all the lands but then she died and it all went down bc the advisors and council don't know how to rule properly -and the queen didn't have more family apart from her baby-so the Darklands dissolves and becomes only the Koopa Kingdom, the Goomba Kingdom, the Bob-omb's and all that - (Then when Bowser takes the crown, he decides he wants to rule all the Darklands again and that's why he starts wars and wins them and whatnot-? He forces the Darklands together again :[)
-Bowser gets curious about the rest of the kingdoms too, so he arranges meetings to meet the other rulers. Particularly in the Mushroom Kingdom, there happens to be the young princess Peach who has recently taken the lead of the kingdom. And when Bowser sees her, she's very beautiful and nice and has the prettiest eyes he's ever seen, and he determines he'll set things right with all the other kingdoms to gain her favor, so she agrees to become his queen and wife.
>So he does, and the kingdoms have a truce and a good relationship, and Bowser and Peach are maybe something close to friends, but then he proposes, and she rejects him. And then from there it's all the kidnapping stuff bc Bowser's young and stupid and obsessed with her in an unhealthy way.
[This part has to do with my Bowuigi family au-] So, the name of the mom was Magma River, and when the koopalings suggest names for their soon-to-arrive baby sibling, Morton suggests 'Magma :]' and Luigi's like, 'ooh, that's a good one :D' and Bowser's like 'hey that was my mom's name :3' but Kamek's like :'U inside bc that's his love's name! And wouldn't it be amazing if one of Bowser's children had her name??
So, he's very very glad that Luigi finally says 'Magma it is!' all happy bc they have an official name for their baby now. And maybe when Magma's born and shifts to koopa form, she looks so much like the queen (actually she looks like Bowser- but let the magikoopa dream) and he's like :'V
I got off the rails 🧍 that's what I had to say shdjdh the queen enjoys being a mom all of one year and then she dies :'v
River always got all excited to talk anyone's ears off about her amazing little child and showing photos from a wallet that has like 12546 photos in it to anyone that talked to her-
Kammy and the queen were close friends too! It was the magikoopa that suggested Queen River better do something about her relationship with Kamek, bc her idiot sibling never would and all that.
Anyways, as usual, bless you if you read till here sjdksj
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massivecheesecakewolf · 5 months
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Danny Phantom AU where everything is the same except there's another ghost hunting (investigating) family who use occult and magic besides the Fenton who use science (and Danny who is a halfa but besides this point). I want to see the magic family (let's call them the Greys) wanting to one-up the Fenton while the teenage grey goes to Casper high and didn't notice Danny's unusually ghostly thing while looking for ghosts in Casper high.
The Greys have magical items( think like a compass that points to the nearest ghost or something like that.) And ghost warding magic with blood blossom crossbow but they have only a magic spell that pulls a ghost into the ghost zone that is situational( the ghost has to stay in a spot for one minute.) While the Fenton thermos is better at catching ghosts and got a ghost portal. While the Fenton are looking to capture a ghost to learn about it while the Greys learn the ghost past(by studying the ghost family history and even learn how they died, the Greys also help the police with murder cases to learn about a ghost death)to figure out their weaknesses and the reason for the ghost purpose for haunting Amity Park. When the Greys saw Danny Phantom fight ghosts they were confused about the new ghost that they didn't know about and try to figure out how Danny came to be but every time they tried to learn about Danny he just hid and changed form as his halfa state confused the magic compass as he is technically alive.
I want someone to write about where Danny help the Greys with a Teke-Teke (a Japanese urban legend there a bottomless lady spirit killed by train haunted a train station and kill people with a scythe) while the Greys are having a conflicted idea about either letting Danny help them or just getting information while fighting the spirit.
The Greys are a major power for Amity Park when they are pulled into the ghost zone by Pariah Dark because their magic item and training help against the ghost army and distracted Fright Knight from helping Pariah Dark.
The teenage Grey ( let us call him Joseph) is a student of Casper high and carries a couple of magic items ( the magic compass and a magic yo-yo that can hurt ghosts even while intangible) while trying to find a ghost (Danny) but his compass is having a weird moment while near Danny but Joseph didn't notice, but don't mistake him for a fool (think him as Joseph Joestar) as he first find Danny Phantom fighting the lunch Lady he misdirected lunch Lady into the freezer and with Danny help capture her,( after this as Joseph is turned Danny leave before Joseph ask about him).
Edit: the Greys absolutely HATES the GIW because they caused collateral damage and possibly death which means more ghosts and the GIW occasionally fight the Greys because they thought magic using are ghost ability as well making the Greys job harder.
Edit edit: When the Greys heard about halfa they thought the halfa are made from a relationship between a ghost and a human, not an artificial accident from a ghost portal. And the Greys can let a ghost possess them while still in control with power ( think geist the sin eater power).also Joseph is on one step higher on the popular ladder then team phantom because when Dash tried to bully Joseph he just sudo flip Dash to the locker in front of the A-lister and scare them.
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"Stay away from the church. In the battle over science vs. religion, science offers credible evidence for all the serious claims it makes. The church says, 'oh, it's right here in this book, see? The one written by people who thought the sun was magic?' I for one would like to see some proof that there is a god. And if you say 'a baby's smile' I'm going to kick you right in the stomach." -- Seth MacFarlane
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theorderofthetriad · 2 years
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The goddamn audacity of Rusty 'doth-protest-too-much' Venture
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grinchwrapsupreme · 2 months
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being super normal about White calling Billy "a dreamer"after the events of Maybe No Go
#truly alarming amount of tags on this post don't click read more fr#the venture bros#pete white#bily quizboy#billy whalen#idk man the way they balance each other is really interesting#the things they agree on and disagree on are almost arbitrary#'you can't put mouthwash in a cookie' 'trust me' vs 'we should spend 10 mil on a motorcycle instead of housing' 'that's such a cool idea'#billy trying to pep white up about the ball#'this was your dream too' like come on dude when have pete's dreams ever worked out#when have yours#'what are we gonna do now billy?' 'we'll cross that bridge when we come to it'#baby the bridge has never been more present#ALSO white calling billy the dreamer when HE'S the one who pushes so hard for things#billy has dreams that might not be realistic but they give him hope and he works around the way the world works to make things happen#like being a self-taught surgeon and believing in a magic ball#pete has dreams IN SPITE of what is realistic and he will mold reality to be what he wants in order to make it happen#like fixing the quizshow and pretty much everything that happened in invisible hand of fate#and they both have disabilities that affect them in vastly different ways and impact their relationship with realistic goals#like billy's hydrocephalus being presented to the audience as mostly a social issue for him and the hand and eye being marks of trauma#rather than like an actual block for him beyond needing to tune the hand up every now and then#vs white's albinism making him physically unable to be in direct sunlight and making him actively fearful of doing certain things and#being certain places#to be clear i know the actual effects of hydrocephalus as well as the hand and eye but this is based on how the show presents it#like billy took these things about himself into account and went ok these are part of my reality and i will work with them#and pete took his reality and went ok i will cover it up with fake tan and wigs or sunscreen and hats and make reality what i want it to be#and that's what makes them a good team!! that's why they science together well#it's also why they argue so much#accepting reality and playing within its constraints vs hating reality and changing it to suit you#these are the hallmarks of scientific progress
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katyspersonal · 1 year
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since you've been playing elden ring, do you have a favorite npc so far?
Haha, my pace at discovering more of Elden Ring is SNAIL slow. And I don't mean moderately fast snail-like mobs in ER, I mean real life snails. xD So, my knowledge is still lacking. But with what I DO know, I think I can pick a favourite already!
This might come off as a surprise, but this...
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...is...
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...SELLEN!
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Honestly, so far I liked her the most! She gives me very strong Imposter Iosefka vibe (in the scenario if after having made enough Emissaries, the Imposter also joined with them to be several small ascended people hiding in a trench coat pretending to be one BIG ascended person…). Whereas she is still, of course, a unique and interesting character on her own! It is just this kind of a female character after knowledge beyond human plane that reminds me.
I am particularly fond of the madman/woman/person characters who want to know the eldrich truths of the universe, no matter how horrifying they are and no matter what taboos they have to break, and what they have to give in exchange. I also can respect the type of 'scientist that is not above trying their own medicine' because, again, she becomes The Orb herself xd Her sassy and blunt attitude is also very appealing for me, she is a confident character with a very certain motivation! I do also enjoy how no matter what scroll she is given, her reaction is that she is familiar with this sorcery, so she is already very educated!
I've posted my analysis how in Bloodborne, Willem and 'original' Choir (from which only Yurie remains) prioritise ascending humanity and leveling with the gods as people, whereas the Choir as it is later tries to TRANSCEND humanity, and will break any taboos, just like Mensis too. In there, I actually sympathise with Willem's side and see Choir as reckless and desperate fools. But in Elden Ring, for some reason, I actually sympathise with the ideas of Sellen (and her teachers, Azur and Lusat) more instead, whereas seeing how Caria family goes about the glintstone teachings as kinda weak. Not REAL researchers. It is very funny and I can't even explain why I am so inconsistent all of a sudden; doesn't help that Rennala herself gives strong Willem and Yurie vibe! Truly, the magic of narration can make EITHER side feel more sympathetic than the other o_o"
Also, I've learned that initially her Witch's Glintsone Crown was named Grana Glintstone Crown, but it was patched out!
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I feel like developers initially did want to make Sellen as important as someone who had her own school and the crown made in her likeness was a common wear too, but it never picked up because… well, her line of studies contradicted with Caria's family agenda and restrictions too much? It is one thing to just explore rocks from space, but completely different one to try and BECOME one! But I decided to go with 'they retconned the idea' rather than with 'they obscured the idea'. I mean, how exactly people would follow this "school"? They'd just become rocks lol. It is not really studying the object when you become the object.
I also honest to god cannot recall this particular shade of green glintstone anywhere else - not in an environment, nowhere on Graven Scholars, and there are no spells or staff associated with this color. So I feel like it is artificial and created BY her; would go with theme of her experimenting with turning people into seeds of a star. Heck, maybe this glintstone also had an… organic origin, too. So it cannot be turned into a weapon (unlike staffs of Azur and Lusat that ARE made from existing cosmic material), but only serve as cathalyst for intellect and sorcery of THE caster.
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Also I just gotta say, I really appreciate how in these spheres everyone is always having the both horrified and awe-full expression, but she looks really blissful and calm x) She actually gave a realistic, adequate estimate towards how much she wanted to become one with the cosmos xD Lore says that even Azur and Lusat were devastated when they witnessed it, so she is arguably MORE of a madwoman than those two. Love this about her so much.
Honorable mention: so far, Nepheli is my second favorite. Her design definitely beats everyone else's amongst NPCs yet, but also she is just really appealing character. Badass warrior with two axes with great honor and will to go on no matter what, who is also very sensitive and compassionate at heart, is in touch with her vulnerable side, grieving the fallen, strong but not invincible… It is a very good example of how TO write a strong and badass female character; the power is not to be a solid brick that never cries but to be able to connect with one's insecurities and still get back up. Her being heartbroken when her father figure turned on her was very moving, for some reason this way she feels stronger than if she just got up and kicked Gideon's ass and hated him forevermore after that. I just live for this balance of both big muscles but ALSO a big heart.
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drconnors · 6 months
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curt connors vc: i care for all my mentees equally! there’s peter, gwendolyn and *looks at smudged writing on clipboard* harkins
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uhohgottashreep · 1 year
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etho and scar being the same age (give or take a few years) is so weird to me. not as weird as if scar actually was whatever age Star Birthdays says (and therefore notably older than etho) but... i still can't handle them being so much younger than cleo or keralis or impulse. etho especially! man's a decade younger than his son (doc) yet acts like he's a 65 year old retiree feeding birds in the park. it's remarkable.
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cookiehoodie · 10 months
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The Party (especially Will and Mike) are huge fans of the movie The Flight of Dragons, 1982. Source: They told me themselves and Mike lent me the book
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