#what if they were saving a “SUN is EVIL?? ” episode for when sun gets rebuild??????? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vale-writes · 6 months

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when i feel icky i like to project onto whatever poor characters happen to be my hyper fixation at the time. might i recommend a hurt/comfort with our favorite vampire spawn when tav gets burnt out/depressed/dissociates?

i love this request <3 my dissociation has been horrible these past 3 weeks and i hadn't even thought of doing this. thank you!!

tags: hurt/comfort, angst, dissociation, reader is in depressive/dissociative episode, gender neutral reader, post-events of the game, bg3 and astarion spoilers

summary: ever since you defeated the netherbrain and saved baldur's gate from evil, astarion noticed you weren't yourself anymore. he started seeing pieces of himself in your behavior, which terrified him. he decides to ask what's wrong and tries to help you through it <3

Ah, sunrise. The time that Astarion should’ve despised the most, considering it’d kill him, but it was really one of the times of day that he loved the most. Because you were there waiting for him in bed.

He was just coming back from a night of haphazard drinking with Karlach and Wyll. They’d both invited you out, but you’d refused, saying you were too tired from all the work you’d been doing helping Baldur’s Gate rebuild. Astarion had been suspicious of you. You were never one to turn down some partying with friends, but he had tried not to think too much of it.

He quietly crept back in through the front door of your shared house, and a soft smile found its way onto his face when he saw that all the curtains had already been drawn to protect him. You must’ve drawn them before you went to bed, knowing he’d be back by sunrise. It was the little things like that that made his undead heart feel alive, even if just for a moment.

Astarion slowly pulled his boots off, trying not to make any noise. After centuries of slinking about, being silent wasn’t something he really had to try to do. But he always was extra conscious when it came to you. He didn’t want to wake you up or disturb your sleep. You deserved to rest.

He gently opened the door to your room and just stared at you for a bit. There was no light in the room, but his darkvision let him see you just fine, albeit in shades of grey. He changed into some more comfortable clothes for sleep and slid into bed with you, wrapping his arms around your waist. You were sleeping on your side with your back facing him, so he just buried his face in the back of your neck and deeply inhaled your scent. Gods, you were so warm. And soft. And the perfect person to sleep next to.

“I’m home, darling,” he murmured softly into your neck, though he knew you couldn’t hear him in your sleep. He always tried to savor this time. Your schedules never seemed to line up, what with him being nocturnal and you not, but sunrise was the one time you both could really rest together, even if it was only for a few hours.

“I love you,” he said before placing a light kiss on the back of your neck and closing his eyes, holding you tight against him. He let himself relax and fall into his trance, his breathing slowing and muscles relaxing into you.

He woke from his trance about four hours later with you still in his arms asleep. He blinked in confusion. By now, you should be out of bed and out of the house. He was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. Maybe you’d decided to take the day off to rest. He couldn’t complain about that. He simply nuzzled his face into your neck again and decided to just wait for you to wake up. You always looked so peaceful when you slept. He could stare at you for hours, just drinking in the sight of you.

He sat up and took out a new book he’d been reading. He wasn’t just going to sit around the house doing nothing when the sun was out. He ran a hand through your hair while he read; half because he knew you liked it, and half because he was a selfish bastard who kind of wanted you to wake up already so he could tell you about all the stupid shit he’d gotten into last night. You slowly stirred from your sleep at his touch, turning to look up at him. You lazily draped an arm over his blanket-covered legs.

“G’morning, ‘Starion,” you said groggily.

“Good morning, darling. You’re up late. Did you plan on taking the day off?” He continued running his hand through your hair and set his book down by his side.

“..What? What time is it?” You frowned in confusion.

“It’s already almost midday. Are you okay? You don’t usually oversleep. Well, this much, anyway.”

“..Midday..? Godsdamnit I’m so late,” you grumbled as you laid face first on your pillow. “Might as well just stay home at this point.”

He narrowed his eyes at you. “You’re not answering my question, darling.”

“What was the question?” you asked, your voice muffled by the pillow.

“Look, darling, as much as I love having your face in the pillow when we’re in bed, I need you to turn over so I can actually hear you.” He grinned at his own dirty joke and waited to hear your giggle back.

But he got nothing.

“..Are you hungover or something?” he scoffed. “You know, we invited you out last night. Did you go off partying with some other group of dashing bastards? You can tell me. I’ll pretend to not be offended.”

Again, nothing. He tried to hide the growing panic in his voice.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked quietly, as if it couldn’t be true if he didn’t say it loud enough. “Did I do something?” He took his hand out of your hair and placed it on his lap. His eyes raked over you, trying to see if there was anything physically wrong with you. You were eerily still. Still breathing, but you weren’t moving at all, even though it couldn’t have been comfortable with your face in the pillow like that.

“No. ‘Starion.” Your voice sounded.. pained. Like every word was taking the life out of you to say. He reached over and picked your limp body up to turn you over onto your back. Your eyes were glazed over and half-lidded. If he couldn’t feel you breathing in that moment, he was sure he would’ve thought you died. He moved some of your hair out of your face as some was stuck to your mouth.

Astarion leaned over you, scanning your face to see what could possibly be wrong with you.

“Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you?” He hadn’t noticed any signs of someone breaking in and he didn’t smell your blood anywhere in the house. What in the Hells was wrong with you?

“‘M fuzzy..” Was all you said.

“You’re.. fuzzy..?” He furrowed his eyebrows at you. “What do you mean you’re-“

And then it clicked. He’d seen you like this once before. It was after you’d been imprisoned and chained up by that goblin priestess, Gut. You’d stumbled out of there in a daze, covered in blood but silent. Once you’d all gone back to camp, you just stayed in your tent for hours. Karlach had gone to check on you, but all she came back to tell the group was that you had been laying there silently. The only thing you’d said was that you were “fuzzy.” Gods, it was so long ago that he’d almost forgotten.

He stared into your eyes. Eyes that were looking, but not seeing. He saw himself laying there. In your eyes, he saw the same faraway look he made himself have every night when he was still enslaved by Cazador. It made him have a horrible nauseous feeling in his stomach. What could have possibly made you feel this awful?

“I’m going to get you some water, okay?”

You simply blinked at him. He tried to mask the anxiety on his face and hurried to pour you a cup of water. He came back into the room with your favorite cup in hand and set it on the nightstand next to you.

“Do you think you ca-“ He looked down at you and saw there were tears falling from your eyes. They fell down your temples and onto the pillow under you, but your expression hadn’t changed since he left. He gently wiped the tears from your eyes as if you were a delicate piece of glass. As if you could break.

Your mind was completely empty but unfathomably full at the same time. You wanted to tell Astarion what was wrong. That you never had time to process everything that happened in your adventure. That the faces of the people you killed or couldn’t save were always in your mind. That the wounds you’d taken always felt like they were still there, no matter how many times Shadowheart had healed you. It was too much.

But whenever you tried to tell him what happened, the thoughts drifted away from you. Your tongue felt heavy. It was better to just give in to the gnawing emptiness. To let it consume you. To let it drown you.

Astarion took your hand in his and gently rubbed his thumb along the back of your hand. The chill of his skin against yours brought you up for air for a moment.

“..cold,” you fought through the heaviness of your own tongue, trying to tell him that the cold was helping. He pulled his hand away from you immediately.

“I’m- I’m sorry. I thought it might-“ He looked down and saw that you had gripped his hand into yours before he could pull away, his cold hand now spreading its chill through your own. He frowned in confusion. “What..?”

You flicked your chin up to motion him closer. Every movement felt like dragging a thousand pounds behind you, but his touch lightened the load just a bit. He tentatively brought his face closer to yours, now about a foot away. You flicked your chin again, then pushed your head down so your forehead was closer to him.

His eyes flickered in understanding once you did this. He laid a gentle, cool kiss to your forehead before resting his forehead on yours.

“Is this helping? Me being cold?” he murmured, his nose brushing against yours as he spoke. You simply closed your eyes and took your first deep breath of the day. Gods, were you lucky your partner was undead.

“Mm,” you grunted in response. He took his free hand and wrapped it around the back of your neck to hold you closer. He picked you up to help you sit up against the headboard of the bed, then straddled you to sit in your lap. He wrapped his arms around you, trading his undead ice for your living warmth.

It shocked your brain out of its spiral, finally letting you fully see Astarion. Your hands moved to his waist and you kissed his nose, earning a surprised noise from him. He pulled away to look at you again, his red eyes drinking in every inch of your face, as if he was trying to memorize every line and shape in it.

“What happened, love? Did someone hurt you? Did you eat or drink something odd? Gods, if anyone did anything to you, they’ll have to deal wi-“

“Astarion-“ you tried to cut him off before he could begin his “I’ll murder anyone,” rant.

He scowled. “No, I’m serious. Who did this to you? Where do they live? You know I’ve got plenty of experience killing. Nobody would know-“

“Astarion.” His face softened and he looked at you again. You gently tucked a stray curl back behind his ear. “Nobody hurt me. I just- life has been a lot, recently. I’ve been so busy helping everyone rebuild and I never had time to just.. rest, and recover from what happened to me. To us.”

“You fucking hero,” he rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh. “Can you be selfish for just one second? Fuck them all. Are you saying spending the entire day shoveling bricks out of the street and listening to people cry for hours is more important than laying here with-“

You shot him a warning look. He rolled his head back and dramatically groaned in frustration.

“Why didn’t you tell me before this happened?” He rested one of his hands on your chest, toying with a stray thread coming out of your shirt. He’d have to fix that later.

“I didn’t want to worry you, ‘Starion. I thought I could handle it,” you mumbled and looked away from him, ashamed by your weakness. You couldn’t deal with a little zoning out and feeling sad every now and then? Really?

He took his other hand and pushed your face back to face him. When you saw him again, his eyes were narrowed and darkened at you. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” You squirmed under him, confused by the sudden firmness in his voice.

“Don’t say you didn’t want to worry me. That’s what led to.. this, which made me infinitely more worried than if you had just told me sooner.” He took a deep breath. He was trying to practice that whole “vulnerability” thing. “It scared me, seeing you like that,” he murmured. “At first, it was because I didn’t know what was wrong. And then it got worse when I did realize what was wrong. I don’t- I don’t want to see you like that. Like me, before.. all of this.”

Your heart felt full, but also dropped at the same time somehow. Gods, he really did care about you. In your efforts to try to shield him from what was happening, you ended up hurting him anyways. You took his hand on your face and kissed it softly before resting your face on his chest, tightly wrapping your arms around him.

“I’ll take that as an apology. You know, I’d prefer a bouquet and a new perfume—maybe a new pair of shoes as well—but I suppose this will do,” he sighed, trying to sound annoyed. You could hear the smile in his voice, though, even if he tried to hide it while you drank in his scent in his chest.

“Now, lay down again. You’re staying right next to me until I say you can leave. I never thought I’d say this, but I do miss our little camps, if only for the fire I could sleep by every night.” He pulled himself off of you and got back under the covers, wrapping an arm around your waist to pull you in as well. He was startlingly strong for a.. petite elf, but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t like it. He spooned you, leaving kisses along your neck while holding you tightly against himself. Your heat spread through his chest and stomach, making him release a content sigh.

"You'll be my fire, won't you? All you have to do is stay here and rest with me, darling. Let me take care of you."

Yeah, the city could go without you for a few days. You had more important things to do now.

#vale writes #WOOOOO #this one got away from me #i’ll be working through the other requests soon #didn’t mean to make this so long #love you!#bg3 #astarion x reader #astarion #bg3 hurt comfort #hurt/comfort #dissociation #bg3 fic

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

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Episode 102: Back to the Moon

“I was there. I saw it with my own eye.”

In The Return, the penultimate episode of Act I, Steven learns something terrible about Rose Quartz. He’s being driven away from an alien threat that nobody thinks he’s ready to face, and his father finally tells him that his mother wasn’t just an alien, but an alien invader. The Gems were attacking Earth, and while Rose ultimately became a hero, she came to the planet as one of the attackers. It’s something the Crystal Gems never told him, but Greg’s words allow Steven to see his mom in a new light that shapes his relationship with her in Act II.

In Back to the Moon, the penultimate episode of Act II, Steven learns something terrible about Rose Quartz. He’s in the thick of an alien threat that he’s more than ready to face, and an enemy finally tells him that his mother is a killer. The Gems were attacking Earth, and while Rose ultimately became a hero, she did it by murdering the leader of the invaders. It’s something the Crystal Gems never told him, but Eyeball’s words force Steven to see his mom in a new light that shapes his relationship with her in Act III.

That one of these stories is true and the other is false is irrelevant to how they alter Steven’s perception of his mother and the Crystal Gems. Even if Rose didn’t actually shatter Pink Diamond, Garnet and Amethyst thought she did and and decided not to tell him, and Pearl knew but couldn’t tell him, because even if Rose didn’t kill Pink, she was still capable of acts as monstrous as removing a friend’s free will.

The effects of learning Rose was an alien invader are instant: Steven is galvanized to return to his friends and save the day, and spends the next fifty-odd episodes looking up to a departed parent who disavowed an evil regime in favor of Earth. I’d argue his relative lack of visible growth in Act II is a direct result of this: he has a simplistic view of his mother as a hero, and his goal to become just like her is futile because he doesn’t have the full story.

Learning Rose shattered Pink Diamond is a slower, more painful process. Yes, there’s the immediate tearful denial, but we jump right back to the main plot that we’ve been following for eight minutes. The scene after the reveal focuses on Amethyst as Jasper, followed by a final confrontation with the Ruby Squad. When Steven speaks, he betrays no signs of dismay: he’s either congratulating Amethyst for a job well done, or trash talking Giga Ruby before launching her into space. But his silence in between speaks volumes, both subtly as he holds Garnet’s hand off to the side, and more openly in my favorite shot of the episode, complete with a somber, high-pitched variant of the Diamond harmonette and strings.

Perhaps Steven’s moments of normalcy seem odd, but as we’ll see in Bubbled, our kid is in shock. It takes a while for the weight of this information to sink in, and he spends the next fifty-odd episodes recovering his shattered pieces and rebuilding himself into a stronger individual than ever. He’s not Rose Quartz, and he never has been, but this is final arc is about him realizing that he shouldn’t be.

So that, to me, defends his odd behavior. What I find less defensible is the level of coincidence involved in the reveal. It’s not a huge deal, but from a storytelling perspective it’s just sloppy to have Jasper mention Pink Diamond for the first time by saying Rose did something to her, then for Steven to learn what Jasper was talking about one episode later, and for those two events to have no bearing on each other. Steven would’ve been told about Pink Diamond whether or not Jasper said a thing, which takes a lot of the narrative oomph out of her last words. All we needed was for him to mention Pink Diamond, just to spark the conversation, and I’d be fine with this. I can forgive the Ruby Squad just happening to show up right when Jasper is defeated—I would’ve loved to see Jasper and the rubies teaming up, but that would be a wholly different story—yet the execution leading up to Eyeball’s explanation irks me to this day, because there’s no good reason for it. If I extend a generous reasoning, perhaps it’s to signify Steven’s lack of agency in this story? Enh. Naw, it still just comes across as contrived to me. Again, it’s not a huge deal, I just wish it was a little tighter.

Obviously the major twist is worth talking about, but Back to the Moon is so much more than than a game-changing revelation. The episode itself doesn’t focus on the consequences of the twist, so we’ll be covering the fallout in Bubbled (y’know, the episode about the fallout).

It’s surprising that Back to the Moon is another Amethyst episode, considering we just get a ton of Amethyst episodes, but what’s more surprising is that it doesn’t feel like an overload of the character. By all accounts we should be a little tired of paying so much attention to her, but this story works by acting as an epilogue to her arc, rather than a continuation. It’s the first of three such epilogues: over the course of Act II, Amethyst learned to accept herself, Garnet became more capable of understanding others and making her identity as a fusion understood, and Pearl stops letting her longing for Rose sabotage her relationships, and Back to the Moon, Mindful Education, and Last One Out of Beach City bask in these changes to the status quo. They aren’t resolutions so much as reflections: our characters have already grown, and now we’re seeing what that means for them.

After struggling against Jasper directly and indirectly for five episodes, Amethyst is able to transform into her rival without a speck of angst. We see that this isn’t physically easy for her, because if it wasn’t a struggle, the whole point of her arc is muted: the terrific exasperated expressions from Lamar Abrams and Katie Mitroff are supplemented by Michaela Dietz’s wonderful Jasper impersonation, complete with slips to her regular voice (it kills me that her idea of good acting is just saying “I’m Jasper” a lot). And I love that we see her deciding to go through with it in the background while Doc rants, which I only noticed in like my fifth viewing. Details matter, people!

Amethyst saves the day by being her best self: a fluid improviser whose self-confidence shines after a severe bout with doubt. She’s the best shapeshifter in the Crystal Gems, and the most impulsive, so she’s the only one capable of taking this approach and the only one wild enough to go through with it. She’s pretty sure she can get away with such an obvious ruse (she was the one who claimed that rubies are dumb in Hit the Diamond, after all), and she’s right. We even get a callback to the days of Amethyst and Pearl as rivals, with Pearl constantly criticizing the plan only to see it succeed despite its clear flaws; in fact, as soon as Pearl praises Amethyst for the trick, it stops working.

While Amethyst gets the most focus, this is really a curtain call for all our friendly Gems now that we’re moving to a new era of the series. Garnet and Pearl, after hamming it up together while playing prisoner (Pearl is louder, but Garnet is funnier), remind us of how far they’ve come in mending their relationship’s lowest point with a cameo from their very hammy fusion. I appreciate the elegance of the Sardonyx factor, because it works as a capper for the Crystal Gems’ stories in Act II, but it also makes sense that these two would fuse to counter another big fusion, considering Amethyst is exhausted from fighting Jasper then playing Jasper.

Peridot and Lapis don’t have such an obvious moment of reflection, but we still get a finishing touch on their Act II relationship. They’ve gone from unwilling accomplices to reluctant roommates to friends, and they’re done with Homeworld conflicts. Lapis’s cheerful “Come on down!” while releasing rubies evokes game show lingo that goes hand in hand with her newfound love of television, and she’s otherwise her wonderful bitter self. Peridot doesn’t get as much to do, but she stands united with Lapis upon being offered the chance to play prisoner: as we saw in Beta, Peridot has gone from using Lapis as a tool to appearing more sensitive to Lapis’s traumatic past than even Lapis herself. I’m sure it won’t come back to haunt them in, say, Season 5.

Then, of course, there are the actual stars of the show.

Charlyne Yi had nothing to prove after voicing a swarm of rubies in Hit the Diamond, but they’re back and better than ever, complete with longer introductions and helpful nicknames from Steven (“Army” and “Navy” as references to the arm and navel are marvelous puns). Their individual personalities shine even brighter when separated and interrogated, and just in case it wasn’t clear enough that they aren’t a threat, we get Lapis and Garnet openly condescending to them. They remain a delight as a whole as well, kicking and punching at the ground to show their hatred of Earth and providing off-screen commentary about germs and Pearl’s overacting. We even get more speech from Giga Ruby than last time, and I relish the opportunity to hear Yi’s slow, deep “monster voice.”

The difference is that we have something of a main ruby this time around. Eyeball was the first member of the gang that we saw, all the way back in the last shot of Barn Mates, and is the most striking member of the team with her unusual gem placement. While the other rubies each get a moment in the sun, and Doc in particular gets a terrific rant about their search for Jasper, it’s Eyeball who takes the lead. Her devotion to Jasper almost retroactively characterizes our recently fallen villain, reinforcing how easy it would be for the other side to see her adherence to her values as heroic rather than stubborn and self-destructive. We get a hilarious shot of a single jealous tear as Doc sits in Amethyst’s lap, reinforcing Eyeball’s hero worship even further. And of course, Eyeball of all people is the person who finally lets Steven know about Rose shattering Pink.

These roles could have been split more evenly among the rubies, but Steven is about to spend an episode alone with Eyeball, and it’s smart to let us get to know her better before we do. Yeah, she’s grouchy and blunt, but there’s a real person in there who’s just as capable of love as our heroes, even if it’s directed towards her home planet and its champions. She hates Rose Quartz, but why wouldn’t she? This is not only the killer of a Diamond, but a traitor we’re talking about.

Here’s a convoluted but true sentence: Back to the Moon is the first half of the third two-part episode in a row (arguably the fourth, considering how seamlessly Crack the Whip leads to Steven vs. Amethyst). On top of this, it borrows from The Return, not only in the shared Rose reveal but in an opponent ominously saying “I was there” as a sort of invasion of Steven’s history. It also borrows from It Could’ve Been Great, returning to the lunar base that preceded our first full look at a Diamond. It’s a first-half episode that’s beholden to first-half episodes of the past: it has so much in common with others of its ilk that it’s unsurprising to see this story end in a cliffhanger. But the secret here is that if “this story” refers to the story of everyone but Steven and Eyeball, we get a pretty solid self-contained episode. Amethyst gets her win, the other Gems help save the day, the rubies are thwarted, and Lapis and Peridot are safe and sound on Earth.

It all feels a little mishmashed, to be honest: it’s a good Amethyst episode, but it’s also about the rubies, and it’s also about Pink Diamond, and it’s also about the end of Act II, and it also ends with our hero getting sucked into space. It shouldn’t work as well as it does. But considering how much time we’re about to spend on Steven all alone with someone who wants him dead, I’m glad to get a first-half episode that sends the rest of Act II off in style. Here comes the hard part.

Future Vision!

Theorists guessed that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond long before the latter was ever mentioned by name, and while Back to the Moon killed this theory for most, there were a few crazy holdouts who held true. I wasn’t one of them (I was iffy on the initial theory, even), but kudos to those who remained loyal, because they were right. And the first hint was right after Steven heard the story, in this heartbreaking shot that gets so much worse with context.

The gag of our heroes in space being this close to getting away with a ruse only to be caught in the last minute is repeated in That Will Be All.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

This is a great Amethyst episode, and a humongous lore episode, but that by itself doesn’t get it in my top twenty. I still love it, as it contains a ton of individual elements that I love (the opening sequence especially, which might not stick out compared to the twist but is so much fun), but we won’t get the ramifications of its reveal until later. It might actually feel more complete if it was just an Amethyst episode, but it works wonders as it is, so I’m happy giving it a good home in the list.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#back to the moon #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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