Ginger Pierce
May 18, 2016 3:59 PM
Teppenpaw Quidditch Practice by Ginger Pierce
Ginger stood on the Pitch, holding the Sign-Up sheet that she'd grabbed on her way out of Teppenpaw and the school broom she'd picked up when she'd arrived a few minutes ago. The list didn't quite have seven names on it, but the Captain hadn't put his John Hancock to it, and neither had his cousin, so she was fully expecting a full team to come out of today's try-out. If, for some reason, the Reinhardts opted out entirely, the team might be a bit stuck, but she was pretty sure she would not get left holding that bag. Teppenpaws don't let Teppenpaws let Teppenpaws down like that.True, they were both fifth years facing their CATS, but that was why The Powers That Be assigned a fourth year as the Assistant, so she could help handle whatever slack they needed. At least, she was assuming it was CATS brain that made them forget to sign up, or maybe Liac just assumed he didn't need to, being Captain and all, and well, Tobi was kind of assumed to be there if Liac was or something.
She was covering the try-outs, too, though she was less sure that was CATS related given term had barely begun, but maybe Liac had gotten used to being a co-captain and was treating her as an equal instead of just abusing her offer to assist the team however she could. Or maybe AQCs regularly ran try-outs and she just didn't know that because Teppenpaw never had one that she'd been around for. Whatever the case, she was hosting.
"Hi!" she greeted cheerfully when it seemed like nobody else was coming. "Welcome to straight-up Just-Teppenpaw Quidditch try-outs!" She still wore the orange ribbon Jake had given her to match the combined team's color; she had come really close today to picking a different one that was yellow but had decided her orange one was too closely associated to Quidditch to leave it in her room on her first day flying as the Assistant Captain. "I'm Ginger Pierce, your new Assistant Captain, and our captain is Liac Reinhardt, and we are both super happy you all joined us and made it possible for Teppenpaw to field its own team in this year's Cup!"
"So without further ado, we'll just jump right into try-outs! Do we have any walk ons? Yes? Great! Your names and positions please!" She scribbled down the responses on the sign up sheet and looked it over.
Enough people were signed up for chaser to fill those three slots, Jake had Seeker, Ginger had Keeper, the Reinhardts had been the beaters before, so a full team was shaping up nicely, plus anyone else would fill in as reserves, which were always nice to have, especially when two of the players were vulnerable to CATS brain.
"Okay, so we are just going to jump right into try-outs with some broom flying. Everyone mount up and we'll do one warm-up lap at a nice leisurely pace, the two laps where you pretend like you are being chased by a cursed bludger, so go fast and make lots of sharp maneuvers trying to loose it, then we'll finish off with one lap flying flat out as fast as you can go. That should let us get a good idea of where everyone's flying skill is at. Ready," she waited a moment to make sure everyone actually was ready, then continued, "Set, Go!"
She flew the warm-up lap with them, but pulled out to the middle of the field with Liac to watch the rest of her teammates flee the make-believe bludgers.
Once the laps were done, she tossed a Quaffle to the first of them to finish who wasn't Jake. She figured he only wanted Seeker, and assumed he'd get that position finally, so there wasn't much point trying to assess his Chasing ability. "We'll do some Chaser practice now, then try out some seeker drills." Jake was the obvious shoo-in, but she figured seeing how much training Gabe needed before Jake graduated wouldn't hurt.
"Jake, you want to take this set of Goals for now?" she hooked a thumb toward the trio of hoops to her left. "I'll take the other set. You and you," she pointed at Natalie and Gabe, "are one team trying to score against Jake, the rest of you are the team trying to score against me. You've got Quaffle possession," she told the laps race winner. "Give us Keepers a head start to our posts, then you all can get started on Liac's signal."
OOC: If we have real walk-ons, that is fabulous! Thank you and welcome! Otherwise, presuming the Reinharts are returning, she looked pointedly at you guys when looking for new names to add to the list. If we have anyone contesting for beater or keeper, we'll pretend some practice drills for those happened after the seeker drills to assess skills for those positions. You can assume first years have had your first flying lessons by now, and you got a signal to start Chasing. Liac's part has not been approved by his author as I have not been able to talk to him, so hopefully I did not step on his toes too many times.
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Ginger Pierce
Teppenpaw Quidditch Practice
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Ginger Pierce
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Gabe Valenti
May 22, 2016 8:30 AM
All about the chase by Gabe Valenti
Bursting out of bed, Gabe beat his alarm to the morning. This was the closest thing to Christmas they had here at Sonora - Quidditch try outs were finally here!He quickly got ready, putting on a yellow t-shirt (team spirit), a pair of jeans he found crumpled at the foot of his bed, and of course, his favorite Mets baseball cap. It still had a faint glow from a charm gone wrong, but it was only really noticeable in the dark, or if you were standing very close. He hoped that would wear off soon.
Grabbing his racing broom, he carefully carried it down to Cascade Hall. It was going to be an awesome day, and Gabe was so excited to be playing Quidditch with old friends and new. But, his stomach called. He'd see Nat and Joe on the Pitch later, for now, he had an important appointment with some waffles.
It was all he could do to keep from running to the Pitch. He was happy to see Ginger there. It was so cool of Liac to let Ginger take so much ownership of the team. Being on a team where people really collaborated was always more fun. Things were off to a great start for Teppenpaw this year.
Nodding eagerly, he took in all of Ginger's directions.
This may be the most imoortant day of his Sonoran career, what he had been working towards for over a year. Hardly a day went by when he didn't fly for at least half an hour. The second year looked forward to showing off all that he learned, doing his part to make Teppenpaw a success, and gaining new friends and teammates in the process.
Knees braced, he looked up. All he wanted to do was lunge into the air, and climb higher and higher as fast aa he could. Yeah, Ginger had said to take it easy this round, but how could he hold back? He settled on making big lazy loops, from one side of the pack to the other, to keep himself entertained. They would really get to fly in three, two, one -
It was funny, but he didn't really practice with bludgers all that often, owing mostly to the fact that none of his friends were interested in playing beater. He'd practiced some techniques, anyway, and started to fly in a shimmy, turning this way and that with great speed. He tried to keep his turns from being too lateral, gaining height and then dropping back down again. It was so many things to keep track of, but he kept from getting too dizzy by keeping his focus further ahead, down the Pitch.
Final lap - time to really give it his all. Flying for speed was like riding fresh power down a Rocky Mountain at the crack of dawn. It was the feeling of having total and absolutely no control all at once. How fast could he push himself this time, for how long? Zooming around the Pitch, it almost caught him by surprise when Ginger tossed him the Quaffle, which he reached out and caught with ease. Cradling the ball in his left arm and close to his chest, he pulled to a smooth halt. Was it really over already?
Gabe wasn't surprised by the Chaser drills. He knew that was where the team need was, and the team came first. Gabe oftened practiced Chasing with Nat, and enjoyed it almost as much as Seeking. Dark eyes lit up when Ginger said they coukd try Seeker practice, too. The second year was excited to get feedback from Jake.
A grin spread across his face. Did Ginger know that Nat and Gabe practiced together? It wasn't anything Gabe had mentioned, but it wasn't a secret, either, they were out on the Pitch all the time. He knew how Nat flew, they trusted each other. It almost seemed unfair.
Almost. Gabe had won speediest, now it was his job to help show off how great Nat, too, "We've got this!" he grinned at his friend.
Once everyone was ready, Gabe started shimmying towards Jake's goal. Trying to make eye contact, he faked forwards, and then passed the ball backwards, slightly behind her. It was a move Nat would have seen him try before. Hopefully the fake would distract the other chasers, giving Nat an extra second to turn back and grab the ball. Meanwhile, he flew forward, setting himself up for either the next pass, or even a rebound. With Nat on his side, he knew they were unstoppable.
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Gabe Valenti
All about the chase
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Jake Manger
May 24, 2016 3:48 AM
'Bout that chase, no Bludger. by Jake Manger
Admittedly, Jake was kinda having a hard time paying attention to what Ginger was saying. In his defense, it wasn’t out of lack of effort or respect; he was just too gosh darned proud to really think about anything other than how proud he was. He could hardly believe it! Ginger was really doing this! He was so happy to see that she had gotten Assistant Captain and now--for whatever reason, which wasn’t really his business so he wasn’t terribly concerned--she was running Quidditch tryouts!But then everybody else was hopping on their brooms, so Jake did the same thing. Another new year meant another new broom, which meant an only-ever-so-slightly-used old broom which with he’d have to do something. He kinda felt like a weirdo to keep giving them to Ginger, so he was considering seeing who on the team really needed one, and if no one did, then just donating them to the program. He was sure Coach Grase, his sort-of relative (she was his sister-in-law’s cousin, plus she shared a godson with his brother Arnold) would be grateful for the contribution.
For the first lap, he did his best to just stick to a leisurely pace, floating merrily by Ginger’s side as much as possible. The second and third ones, everybody was flying all crazy, so he just emulated that. Then everybody sped up and straightened out, which was something Jake happened to be very good at; even with his latest growth spurt, he was still a rather small boy, and he knew how to tuck into himself to get even more aerodynamic. Maybe he’d only ever been a reserve, but he knew how to be a Seeker. That meant going fast. Plus, a brand new broom never hurt anything.
He looked at Ginger a bit incredulously as she suggested he mind one of the goals, but she was in charge, and the drill she wanted to do did require two Keepers, so he did what he was told. (She did mention a Seeker thing after this, so he just had to not get too super tired on this before he had the chance to show his stuff on the spot he actually wanted.)
He was barely in front of the hoops when Gabe--the little speed demon--shot forward down the Pitch. Jake felt himself getting nervous watching the Chaser come at him, and he knew all at once that he could never actually be a Keeper. As much of a team player as he was, it was too nerve-wracking to sit here and hope the Chasers on your side did what they had to do to keep you bored. At least when you Seek, you’re the only one you’re really worrying about. It’s like a separate game. The Beaters have your back, but when they do their job right, you don’t even know they’re there.
To Jake’s surprise (and joy), Gabe didn’t shoot; instead, he did a cool pass backwards, obviously hoping for Nat to retrieve. Jake, on the other hand, hoped one of his Chasers managed to get a hold of it. That was how this worked, right? “Come on guys!” he cheered, the only part of athletics he’d gotten much experience with thus far.
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Jake Manger
'Bout that chase, no Bludger.
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Jake Manger
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Nat Varth
May 24, 2016 6:02 AM
I'm Bringing Quaffle Back by Nat Varth
Natalie had been worried that she wouldn’t be able to sleep the night before try outs but, ever the deep sleeper, had only found herself waking up extra early rather than having been unable to sleep at all. Which was good- she wanted to make a good first impression as one of the newest members on the team. And she had to be on the team. This was her dream, one she shared with her best friend, Gabe.It was technically still too early to be wandering about the castle, and so she decided she’d read her textbook for Transfiguration as the professor said they could get a head start on the lessons by doing so. Studying wasn’t her thing though, she couldn’t concentrate very well on it at the best of times let alone right now when Quidditch try outs were a scant few hours away. She tried to take notes but instead found herself doodling more of the ridiculously cute groundhogs on brooms that Ginger Pierce had scrawled on the sign-up sheet.
When it was finally light out, Natalie risked breaking curfew and grabbed her Quidditch gear and bustled out of the room she shared with the still sleeping Raine, out of the commons, through the hallways, until she was finally at the pitch. She and Gabe spent hours and hours practicing here, both together and separately. Today would really test their acquired abilities, but she had faith- they were nothing if not diligent. Or obsessed. Both were apt when it came to the flying sport.
Not having a partner to practice with, she worked on her flight patterns. Earlier last year she had found a Quidditch play book, full of little hand written notes about elevation, flight trajectories, and preferable passes. Though she could enchant the quaffle to come back to her, throwing to no one was still harder than practicing with someone though so she stuck to flying the patterns she and Gabe often practiced.
After nearly three hours of flying she felt the need to eat something. Stopping only long enough to dash to the kitchens and ask the elves to make her two sandwiches, she dashed back, eating the first on her way. She knew one day of practice wouldn’t really make a difference compared to the year of practice previously spent but she didn’t feel it. She just couldn’t reason with her heart telling her to fly, fly, fly.
When Ginger finally started try outs with flying practice Natalie burst into a big, toothy grin. To be fair, the grin didn’t leave her face all that often, it merely reverted to a big, but close, smile when they were asked to fly as fast as they could. She had to close her mouth when the air rushed into her cheeks, pushing them outward just a little painfully. Nat didn’t win the fastest, but she didn’t expect to- she was better at maneuvering trickily than actually going very fast. Not that she placed too far behind- a great surprise seeing as she’d really only been flying for a year. It must have been her natural aptitude for sports of every kind- and the diligence that went with practicing them. She was so proud of Gabe for having been the fastest she ran up to him and high fived the boy who just received the quaffle.
When Gabe broke into a grin that matched the one that had been plastered on her wind bit face she couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest person in the world- Gabe and she would be playing Quidditch side by side against a totally unsuspecting player. Nat was nothing if not tricksy, but Gabe was . . . well, there was no denying the talent there. Not only could he faint left, right, up, down, sideways, backwards, he could do it with such speed and precision and Nat was able to read him well enough that she knew exactly where she needed to be to complete his passes. So when he faked forward, and angled his broom just a little so that his dominant hand could send the ball behind him in a straighter line, she knew exactly where to go- backwards.
Jake, over by the second goal, was her intended target in the end. First though, she’d have to make sure that she didn’t have the other chasers on her too quickly, and given the limited number of people she could pass to, they’d know who to guard. She’d have to make like a Hobbit and be very, very tricksy. Angling her broom ever so slightly upward and to the left, she flew up, leveled, and quaffle still in hand, attempted to get around the first opposing chaser by leaning far right again. When she was close enough to an approaching Gabe she cut under him, expecting him to notice her intent and pull his legs up. Not chancing it, though, she went just a little lower than was strictly necessary, and pushed the ball into his waiting hands as she came up on his left. Side by side they flew past the two chasers now both to their right, and bowed apart as they came into range of Jake. Waiting for Gabe’s move, Nat watched the chasers head over, and readied herself for an interception.
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Nat Varth
I'm Bringing Quaffle Back
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Nat Varth
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Gabe
May 24, 2016 2:13 PM
Go 'head and tell them other Houses that by Gabe
Gabe punched the air and whooped when Nat caught the Quaffle. Of course she had caught it, this was Nat after all, but this was Quidditch tryouts, not practice, which made that A Very Important Catch. They had planned for over a year now to join the team together. A win for her was a win for him.He leaned forward to follow her, zigzagging a bit to throw off any opposing chasers. For not the first time in his life, he considered himselfnto be a pretty lucky kid. He had spent his childhood trying to keep up with his older siblings, whether on black runs while skiing, playing catcher while his sister pitched, or racing his brother down a soccer field. All of this translated to a decade of sports, of muscle memory, and of trusting his body. Even though he had only spent a year on a broom, it felt almost completely natural to him to accelerate forward, wind against his face.
Approaching the goals, he expected Nat to take the shot, when he saw her coming his way. Pushing off with his arms, he kicked his legs out so that his ankles each crossed over the the broom. It wasn't a very comfortable position, but he wasn't sure how close Nat was going to fly. She came in a bit lower than he antcipated, so he lowered his legs back down again, leaned forward and reached with his left arm to grab the Quaffle out of her hands.
They were getting closer now, and Gabe needed to figure out how he was going to take on Jake. Luckily, he and Nat were facing the less experienced of the two keepers, Ginger having actually played in a real game, and Jake having more experience as a Seeker. But, as a sixth year, Jake still had more general Qudditch and flying experience than Gabe. And Gabe had already used a fake pass just moments ago, so Jake would be expecting that. Maybe he should just channel his inner Messi?
Approaching the goals fast, he angled his body towards the right-most goal, towards the opposing chasers, lifting the ball in his left hand, about to strike. Wait for it, and...
At the last minute, with all the enegy he could muster he veered down and left, coming to almost a complete halt as he launched the ball towards the left hoop. He thought he had a good shot, but he might need a little assistance from Nat to make sure the angle was just right. He felt almost certain there was no way the opposing Chasers could get to it in time, without pulling off a cool move. Whatever the case, this was definitely the most fun he'd ever had at Sonora. If maneuvering a broom was this much fun, imagine how cool it would be to drive a car in just a few years?
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Gabe
Go 'head and tell them other Houses that
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Joe Umland
May 26, 2016 5:26 PM
*Doesn't know the song, but hums along* by Joe Umland
Joe’s parents both agreed that middle management just meant being the one who got handed all the work while upper management got the decent pay and glory, so Joe had never really doubted that it was so, but he was surprised to see the extent to which it seemed to be so on the Teppenpaw Quidditch team. Minus, obviously, the bit about pay, but between the sign-up sheets and this, Liac really seemed to be putting a lot of faith in Ginger. Luckily, she was either up for it or good at faking it, because she seemed enthusiastic, but Joe did think it was a little weird.Thoughts about management went out of his head when Ginger instructed them all to fly, though. Joe had not expected Best Flier to land in his lap when he’d opened the yearbook, but since it had, he now felt like he ought to try to prove something instead of being sensible, which was his first impulse and would also help him with not looking like he wanted to beat Gabe and Nat at things. Whether that was true or not, Joe couldn’t really decide – he didn’t want to beat them, no, but he also didn’t want them to beat him, and sometimes, there was no way for everyone to just kind of hang on the same level – but he didn’t want them to think he was the kind of guy who wanted others to lose. Even John and his friends (the ones at home, at least) weren’t like that, despite taking no shame at all in the ‘want to win’ part.
Gabe rendered it a moot point by winning the preliminary race anyway, which was a bit of a relief if Joe was being honest. Being pretty sure his proto-Chasing team was going to be the less successful, not so much. Gabe and Nat quickly proved what a smart idea them working together all last year had been and, conversely, what a dumb idea it had been for Joe to worry that he might be intruding if he invited himself along; he might well have been, but it would have gone a lot better now if he’d spent more time observing their patterns than he had. The passes looked seriously cool and he made a mental note to tell them so later.
At the goals, he saw Gabe going right and went left himself, figuring that Jake might well throw the ball away from the hoop it looked like Gabe was going to throw it through. It was a bit of a surprise, then, when his roommate suddenly also went left and then threw the ball that way. Joe doubted his ability to catch it, but he accelerated and swung at the ball with his fist to try to knock it off-course, flashing on the idea that trying to intercept a hard, fast-moving ball with his open hand would be painful and completely forgetting about the existence of Pennifold Charms, never mind whether or not they slowed the ball in all directions, until his panicked attempt to dive for the falling ball ended sooner than he had expected and he realized it had not gone down as fast as he had expected. He didn’t waste too much time feeling stupid when he got the ball back, though, instead heading back in Ginger’s direction and, the first chance he saw, veered toward a temporary teammate, tried very hard to forget John’s occasional rambling about how it should, theoretically, be possible for a sufficiently experienced Beater to knock Chasers as small as average beginners over like tiny dominoes when they got close together, and made a pass.
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Joe Umland
*Doesn't know the song, but hums along*
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Joe Umland
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Jozua Sparks
May 27, 2016 2:19 PM
*Cheers from the audience* by Jozua Sparks
Jozua wasn't quite sure what he was doing here or what possessed him to come. He was a good flier, sure, most people in Aladren were, but he'd never played Quidditch, never wanted to play Quidditch, and certainly didn't follow professional Quidditch games. Yet here he was.He mostly blamed that list in the brown haired girl's hands. A team needed seven people to play, and as of this morning, Teppenpaw's sign up sheet had only been listing five. Mr. Xavier had sounded so hopeful that the Hpuse would play and Jozua didn't want the guy, or the five names on the list, to be disappointed. And he'd been flying nearly as long as he'd been walking, so he kind of felt like it would be partly his fault if they couldn't field a team.
Plus Lily liked Quidditch, so playing against her and having another shared interest to talk about and do together might be okay.
So here he was, his broom in hand, at the Teppenpaw Try-Outs. The broom was not a racing broom or a fancy Quidditch broom, but it was a respectable flying-about-town broom that he was comfortable riding, so he figured it was at least as good as anything the school lent out.
He raised his hand when the girl -Ginger - asked walk-ons to introduce themselves. "Uh, Jozua. Jozua Sparks. First year." He looked around and wondered if he was counting right because he thought maybe - maybe - they didn't need him after all, but it was too late to not be here, so he said,"I'm fine just being a reserve if we've got enough players, but, otherwise, whatever you need. No preference."
Claiming the Reserve position did not get him out doing laps, so he joined in, keeping up fine with the 'casual' lap, which was his normal flying mode, but once people start flying all crazy-like, Jozua spend half a lap staring at them like they'd all gone mad before trying to emulate the jerky randomness. The final lap, Jozua was dead last to finish, his broom simply not up to the task of going at such high speeds. Until now, Jozua had never realized his street broom had an upper speed limit; he'd just never attempted to max it out before. He'd had no sane reason or safe place to even try. He supposed he could have found one somewhere in town; the school probably had a pitch or field he could use for it, but he didn't like to go too close to the school for fear somebody might think he was supposed to be in there with the non-home-schooled kids and then there would be a whole mess of explanations that Jozua just didn't want to deal with.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for him as he chugged his broom across the imaginary finish line, which was kind of embarrassing, but Ginger just started explaining what they'd be doing next, and Jozua tried to keep straight who was and wasn't on his team. The two who Were Not took off like professionals and Jozua followed after them feeling like a toddler trying to be like the big kids. At the goal, one who Was managed to get the ball back and Jozua turned around. He could only assume the guy passed to him because he thought Jozua was intentionally going slow to allow for a pass, which he kind of was, but his broom really didn't have much margin left for speeding up even at that rate.
On top of that, Jozua fumbled the catch. Clearly, Quidditch was not a secret talent he'd been neglecting all these years. If Teppenpaw didn't need him on the front lines, not having him there was obviously in everybody's best interest. He flew downward to recover the dropped Quaffle but it was too late. Somebody else already had it.
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Jozua Sparks
*Cheers from the audience*
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Nat Varth
May 31, 2016 12:11 AM
Catching the Quaffle by Nat Varth
The quaffle dropped and Nat pounced. She’d been flying low, not low enough to reach the quaffle immediately, but enough so that it took her just a few short seconds to intercept the drop. Having flown away from Gabe she made her way back to him.As the other chasers came closer and she flew higher the space available to fly in grew more narrow. She tried to get on the other side of Gabe again, this time by cutting in front of him then falling behind so he was directly next to her, blocking her from the opposing force. They headed towards the goal, sparks in Nat’s eyes, and flew closer to Jake again.
Gabe was nearing the other chasers and a pass didn’t seem likely. She would have to aim for the goal herself. As they approached Jake, Nat lobbed the quaffle just above Jake’s head to the right. She always found it more difficult to protect the left side, hopefully Jake would be the same. Against more practiced keepers she would have to play even harder and wouldn’t dare rely on that triviality to make it in the goal but she knew Teppenpaw team’s players and their positions and Seeking wasn’t at all like Keeping.
With equal parts hope and belief it would go in, it was now in Jake’s court.
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Nat Varth
Catching the Quaffle
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