Characters for The Universiad, a Spacebattler Story.

The Forum in general

An interdimensional organisation-state-civilisation founded by the Originals. Based out of a vast fleet with a minimum of fixed holdings, they wander the multiverse in search of the universe they originated from.

Aerith and Bob: Thanks to the Originals' sticking to their "usernames" and the wide variety of intermixed cultures from imported populations.
Almighty Janitor: There are thousands of Originals alone, every last one with millennia of experience. Of course there are plenty hiding in positions well below their ability.
Berserk Button: Unless you have a reason ironclad enough to take the Death Star's superlaser, there are less painful ways to commit suicide than deliberately harming a child in Forum personnel's vicinity.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Forum society has very few restrictions; it condones things like ultraviolence and hyper-porn that would horrify many self-proclaimed extreme anarchist libertarians and get you multiple life sentences from anyone else. But they also practice Sinister Surveillance to such a pervasive extent that Big Brother would baulk, and there are still lines, some of which are bizarre ones like "no stockpiling". Even God may not be able to help you if you get caught crossing them. The punishments that ensue are drastic enough that any dictators of third world shitholes fortunate enough to witness them would either be appalled or inspired.
"Are all you forumites insane?" Councilor Tevos glared through the screen at me, her lovely features made even more attractive, in many ways, by the fire in her dark eyes. "You seem to run from scandal to controversy to flirting with open warfare over the most bizarre of reasons! You claim to be civilised, but you execute people on live vid, as though it's something to be proud of! There is no predicting you! It can't just be your race: even the Systems Alliance aren't this ... this mercurial! Are you all quite mad?" (From Curbstomp: It Never Rains)
Cyborg: Commonplace even among civilians, and often necessary to counteract Forum-exclusive ailments.
Death Is Cheap: A Forum citizen that dies will "respawn" shortly afterwards, barring a certain few unusual causes of death. For some reason it only starts taking effect after hitting 18, though.
Good Is Not Nice: The Forum genuinely aims to do good for the universes it visits, but it can be harsh about things.
- I Am a Monster: And some of its members are entirely too aware of how nasty their actions are.
Hero of Another Story: Not the Forum itself, but there are countless of these given the size of the population.
Mercy Kill: Invoked. Due to the respawning effects, it's often far more expedient to just end a citizen's misery.
Old Master: Past a point, almost every Forum citizen has multiple lifetimes' worth of experience in their chosen fields, and just wait till you get to the Originals...
Outside-Context Problem: Of a sorts. Its inter-universal status enables it to hang with single-universe powers its apparent greater.
Overshadowed by Awesome: There are many within the Forum who would objectively be masters of their fields anywhere else. But between the multi-millennial experience of the Originals and the sheer "imported" genius it picks up, these sorts often go forgotten.
Possession Implies Mastery: Averted with Forerunner tech. Despite having had the Forum (the spacecraft) for thousands of years, scientists and engineers still have yet to fully replicate the power of its equipment. The Forerunners are that far ahead.
Space Nomads

Originals in general

"Originals" is a term used to refer to the original members of the Forum taken from their native universe into the Broken Lands.

Anti-Magic: Even untrained Originals have developed some level of resistance to telepathy and being accountable to enemy precognition.
Berserk Button: The Originals annually commemorate the date they vowed to let go of their real names. Mocking the occasion is a good way to get a hurt real bad.
Everyone Has Standards: The Originals are to a man Combat Pragmatists who cheerfully advocate There Is No Kill Like Overkill, but the results of deploying a Witch during the "Starkiller" Black Star incident were so brutal that everyone involved, all the way up to even normally The Unfettered Gideon 020, was forced to reconsider the morality of doing so, and eventually ruled them Godzilla Threshold-only WMD.
Famed In-Story: You'll have to go pretty far to find an Original that isn't (in)famous for at least one thing.
From Nobody to Nightmare: From a bunch of geeks and nerds, almost none of whom had combat experience or training, to a major multiversal power.
Jack of All Trades/Renaissance Man: Throw a stone in a crowd of Originals and very good odds you'll hit someone at least expert-level in multiple fields.
That Man Is Dead: The Originals all renounced their original names, vowing not to use them until such time as they returned to their own universe.
Time Abyss: The Originals have lived for twelve thousand years.
World of Badass: It's probably nigh-impossible to find an Original who can't Curb Stomp a special forces team, and things only go up from there.

Individual Forum service arms

Aggressive Extraction Force

A cross-service force expressly charged with retrieving unwittingly displaced Forum citizens from the universes they've been abducted to with maximum force and minimum subtlety.

The Cavalry: Their raison d'etre.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The AEF is extremely "fuck subtle, shoot 'em all" even by the Combat Pragmatist, More Dakka- and Nuclear Option-loving standards of the Forum. Counter Force would be proud.

The Commissariat

The Forum's military police force.

Interservice Rivalry: In the early days after the First Incursion, they were unwilling to cede authority to the officially-designated FLEETSEC and tried to keep their rivals under-equipped and -staffed. It took Gideon's intervention before they gave up civilian policing.

FLEETSEC

The Forum's civilian police force. Includes members of an Alternate Universe version of the Judges.

Big Brother Is Watching: Forumites can have so much freedom partly due to the ubiquitous surveillance.
SWAT Team: One of their Elite Mooks branches.

MILCOMM

The Forum's ground and planetary operations force. Includes the wet navy.

Suspiciously Specific Denial: Their official profile mentions "unproven" rumours of a squad of gamma energy-enhanced soldiers under their aegis.

MILNET (defunct)

The former Forum ground force, disbanded after the First Incursion.

Hero with Bad Publicity: The Black Queen War-era Flamethrower Specialists were abhorred despite (because of?) their essential role of burning the dead to prevent their being raised as zombies.

The Moderators and Administrators

The actual leaders of the Forum. Though Forum Members - Membership, with a capital M, is a position distinct from ordinary citizenship - are permitted, nay, obligated to debate and hash out Forum policy, the Moderators and their leaders the Administrators hold final veto.

The Ghost: Enforced. Due to Gideon (the author)'s insistence that only the appropriate users can "play" the characters representing themselves, and none of the actual mods deigning to join in, they will remain offscreen for the foreseeable future.

NAVCOMM

The aerospace arm of the Forum military. Includes the marines.

Office of Special Resources (OSR)

The gatekeepers of the Forum's resources, as well as the spearheads who go out and acquire more of said resources - by morally murky means if necessary. Not a part of the normal military, its commanding Colonel reports direct to the Moderators rather than to military high command. Though it is composed of four directorates, it is the paramilitary Field Operations Directorate (FOD), disproportionately powerful for its small size, that is perhaps the most (in)famous of the lot; as such, unless otherwise stated, the below generally refer to FOD.

Badass Bureaucrat: The auditors of the Financial Management Directorate, otherwise known as "Salary Men", pursue financial crime with a diligence and persistence that real-world regulators would sacrifice an unhealthy amount of organs to be able to emulate.
Bigger Stick: Due to the OSR getting first dibs on the best technology, their operatives, equipment and spacecraft are always individually superior to anything the other service arms have.
Colonel Badass: The highest rank anyone in the OSR can, in theory, hope to aspire to.
Comes Great Responsibility: In theory, the sheer amount of power and resources they command is meant to be offset by the hefty duties they must take up. In practice, some of their operatives have gotten... a little ahead of themselves.
Covert Group with Mundane Front: Would the average person without context think "Office of Special Resources" is a very powerful intelligence/paramilitary force?
Elites Are More Glamorous: OSR training is intended to test the mental, moral and physical limits of its trainees to the fullest, and the responsibilities of graduated operatives are heavy and many... but the abilities and privileges they get out of it are equally vast, such that the Office is rarely wanting for applicants.
Hero with Bad Publicity/Token Evil Teammate/Well-Intentioned Extremist: Everything they do is for the good of the Forum. Nevertheless, there are those within the Forum or its allies who take a less than approving view of the extremes the OSR goes to. At least one character has likened them to Cerberus; for those of you who haven't played the games, that's not a compliment.
Jack of All Trades: The OSR is more than just a combat and special operations formation. Apart from the logistics concerns they really do handle, senior OSR operatives bear a wide range of responsibilities, including but not limited to counterintelligence, equipment testing, espionage, law enforcement, security and training.
Light Is Not Good: The standard OSR battle uniform is white, which doesn't help the Cerberus comparisons in the slightest.
Majorly Awesome: Due to Gideon being The Colonel, this is the highest rank any other OSR operative (with a very few exceptions) can aspire to.
Protagonist-Centred Morality: Averted; despite being the "pet" faction of Gideon (the author), they are not portrayed as always in the right and characters don't shy from delivering What the Hell, Hero? lines at them. The usual response is Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!, Shut Up, Kirk! and I Did What I Had to Do.
The Spartan Way: OSR training is among and some say the most brutal in the Forum. Though many details are highly classified, known aspects include being made to do mined running and obstacle courses for days without rest, live-fire exercises involving artillery and replacing targets while under fire, reliving past OSR operations and close-quarters combat courses that are rumoured to include a Room 101.
State Sec: They are outside and above the chain of command of the Forum's official military services. Their leader reports direct to the Moderators. As the name suggests, they have the final word on Forum resources. They have their own intelligence and R&D arms and their technology and training is far beyond all the rest, such that even an OSR "grunt" is superior to most other Forum special forces. Only their comparatively low numbers prevent any coup attempt from being a Curb-Stomp Battle, and even then heavy casualties are expected.
The Unfettered: Though it tries to seek a subtle solution first where possible, if push comes to shove there are very few lines OSR will not cross to accomplish their goals. Gas a slave camp? Leave No Witnesses as to the Forum's passing, even if it means harming children and adolescents or any non-OSR Forumites who shouldn't have been in the way? Use themselves as Honey Traps? Anything to advance and safeguard the Forum.
Villain in a White Suit: They wear white for their standard uniforms and are easily the most morally dark of the Forum's forces.
What You Are in the Dark: A major issue with Lone Wolves, who are inserted alone years or decades ahead of even conventional recon troops and operate without oversight in order to accomplish their goals. Although Lilithium and her psychics do their best to screen operatives and prevent nutcases from rising high enough to get the responsibility, and anyone who does still has to go before Gideon himself, every now and then a closet Ax-Crazy slips through or someone less resilient than anticipated succumbs to the isolation and tries to set him/herself up as a warlord.

P.O.E.T (Pokers Of Eldritch Things)

They who bump back when the things in the night go bump. Researchers into the eldritch and the Forum's primary defence against it.

Boxed Crook: Their AEON branch contains and weaponises Eldritch Abominations of its own for the Godzilla Threshold-crossing moments when such is the only appropriate response to the situation at hand.
Fun with Acronyms: As above. All its subarms also have this sort of name.

Puella Magi Corps

Shadow Cabal

There is no Shadow Cabal. You Didn't See That.

Individual characters (Original characters, including Originals)

Alisa Stanovich (Major, OSR)

An OSR Lone Wolf assigned to penetrate an Infinite Stratos universe disguised as a student at the Academy and acquire IS technology, at least until ckk185 became a Spanner in the Works.

Ax-Crazy: Except not really? Maybe.
Large Ham
Walking Spoiler: The summary on her spoils her vital role in ckk's Infinite Stratos sidestory.

Arythios

"Chief Barkeeper/Owner/Bouncer/Hammer Time Bringer" of the Sink Hole, the oldest bar/eatery in the Forum.

Cool Old Guy: Though he's probably not significantly older than the other Originals - after all, once you hit your first millennium, a decade's but a percentage point - he visually conforms to this image. Rumours are that it's a conscious invocation via augs and plastic surgery.
Sherlock Scan: Can very accurately pick out details of a person's personality just by observing their behaviour and clothing.

Atreidestrooper (Detective, FLEETSEC)

The Alcoholic: Gets sloshed easily and often, though the augs help if it's an emergency and he needs to sober up fast.
Almighty Janitor

Azamaria Bles (???)

One of Barricade's daughters.

Blessed with Suck
Broken Bird: Used to be a lot more outgoing before her accident.
Emergency Transformation: An accident involving Metatron led to her having to be installed into a Murakumo unit.
Person of Mass Destruction

Barricade (Officially an independent contractor. Most Definitely Not An OSR Lieutenant Colonel.)

Colonel Badass: Is definitely not this.
Consummate Liar/Unreliable Expositor: Almost everything he says has to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Flawed Prototype: He pilots the prototype for the Thoth Orbital Frame, which lags behind the production model in various ways. Due to bad blood between him and Gideon that has never really been resolved, repeated requests to upgrade to production standard or beyond have been deflected.
Good Is Not Nice: Very much to the "not nice" side even by Forum standards.
Happily Married

Blackraptor (Captain, The Jack Squadron, FLEETSEC)

Butt-Monkey: Just keeps getting into trouble, and not the kind that makes for awesome battles.
Electronic Eyes: He has one. It's his sole augment, which makes him unusual in the augmentation-happy Forum.
Serial Romeo: The profile on him states
-Makes a mess of himself when it comes to close relations with women he is genuinely attracted do. (sic)
Suspiciously Specific Denial: With regards to his relationship with the leads of Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko.

Conjured Blade (Former MILCOMM)

ckk185 (Major General (Ret.), SPECTREs, MILCOMM)

Butt-Monkey: The inevitable result of being husband to Tabane.
Cyborg: Although cybernetics are common in the Forum, he is one of the few with a full-body replacement.
Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: His "visit" to Infinite Stratos was triggered by giving a bit more lip than wise to Yukari Yakumo.
Everyone Has Standards: Freely admits to being one of the more monstrous Originals, but still had a Sudden Principled Stand when Gideon ordered a slave camp gassed during an operation against The Draka. Also expressed discomfort with the idea of controlling and manipulating the media.
I Call It "Vera": Has a N7 Hurricane called "Lucky Seven".
In-Series Nickname: "Dog" or some variation thereof.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold
Lawful Neutral/Undying Loyalty: Though he may have qualms about his orders, he will quash his own objections and carry them out unless they really irk him something fierce.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Receives one from the spectre of a fallen comrade during his Infinite Stratos "visit".
"Here's what you can do: Nothing. When the chips are down, you back out of your promises. When it really matters, you fuck up. I trusted you, puppy. You said you would protect me. You said you watch my back. But you left me to the BETA, to be eaten alive. So tell us then, why should we trust you to save me/your Rabbit when you had never kept any of your promises? That you are useless?"
Shell-Shocked Veteran: He was never the same after the Black Queen War.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: He is very foul-mouthed even by the Forum's super-liberal standards.
Stealth Expert

Fallenworldful (Captain, Falling Stars)

Magic Knight
Private Military Contractors: Falling Stars sometimes accepts mercenary work.

Firefinder12 (The Deconstructors)

Obfuscating Stupidity

Franz von Arkalest (P.O.E.T)

Founder and current head of P.O.E.T.

Badass Longcoat
I Call It "Vera": Has a chainsaw, sorry, "Heavy Hydraulic Cutter" he calls Betty.
Mad Scientist

Frostbyght (Staff Sergeant, 1st squad, C Company, Force Recon Special Tactics Team, MILCOMM)

Ganti (Lieutenant, Ganti's Gundams, ???)

Ace Pilot
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Startling poor with pistols on foot, even objectively speaking. It is rumoured his marksmanship scores have to be fudged to keep him in active service.
Nonindicative Name: There are no Gundams in his unit, or used in combat in the entirety of the Forum for that matter.

GhanjRho (Force Commander, AEF)

Current head of the AEF. Was the leader of the forces that unseated the old MILNET heads after the First Incursion.

Four-Star Badass
Lovecraftian Superpower: He bears a modified form of Blacklight.
Scars Are Forever

Gideon 020 (Colonel, Field Operations Directive, OSR)

Founder of the OSR. First, current and only (so far) head of the FOD.

Authority Equals Asskicking
Berserk Button: Questioning the morality and wisdom of his decisions is a quick way to a chewing-out or worse.
Colonel Badass
Deal with the Devil: He's played the role of the devil to at least two characters, namely Blackraptor and ckk185.
Elites Are More Glamorous: He's the frakkin' head of the frakkin' OSR. That's about as elite as you can get in the Forum's (para)military forces.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Records of who he was or what he did before he stood up the OSR are scant and sketchy, other than his being a mere Flame Trooper. However, after he made that fateful proposal, he quickly became one of the most powerful beings in the Forum, both militarily and politically. Making him use that power, on the other hand...
Got Volunteered: After he proposed the creation of the OSR, the Moderators promptly shoved that responsibility on his shoulders.
Necessarily Evil: He fully expects to be considered a war criminal when the Forum returns to the Originals' universe of origin.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He only calls other Originals demeaning terms like "boy" when he's seriously, seriously stressed.
Super Prototype: He is one of the 200 original OSR operatives with the X-0 augmentations, which are better than even the latest X-90s fresh out of the labs despite the gap of millennia.
- Evolving Weapon: They somehow self-improve, which probably explains how they remain competitive.
- Unobtainium: Apparently, this is due to them being made wholly of some material the Forum can't recreate, whereas the later models only use small bits.
The Unfettered: The OSR's attitude takes after his own.

Ginger Maniac (Commodore, "Maniac's Marauders", Tip of the Spear, NAVCOMM)

Elites Are More Glamorous: Both played straight currently as a part of NAVCOMM's Tip of the Spear and averted when he was helping stand up CAOS.
Four-Star Badass: Technically a One, as of "now".
Glass Cannon: As he himself recognises, all the firepower the alpha-synth boasts comes at the cost of defence and redundancy a full-sized capship would have.
Kid with the Leash: One of his retainers is Penny Royal Eight, an AI that is... "enthusiastic" in the Hellsing Ultimate Abridged sense at the best of times.
Lightning Bruiser: His synth-body is an alpha-synth from In Fury Born.

Gladiusone (Captain, ??? , NAVCOMM)

Ambadassador: Formerly. The ambassador part, not the badass, that is.
The Casanova: Is somewhat infamous for this, though insists that there are several his superior in this regard. To his credit, he is entirely upfront about this, such that anyone entering a relationship with him knows what to expect.
Cunning Linguist
Instant Armor: One of the items he regularly carries allows him to summon what looks like a suit of full plate armour.
Overshadowed by Awesome: By his own reckoning, he is good at many things to the point that he would be objectively renowned anywhere else, but inferior to other Originals specialising in those fields.
Warrior Poet

HopelessDiamond (Commodore, 3rd Squadron, Silent Service, NAVCOMM. Most Definitely Not An OSR Senior Major.)

Jemnite (Major, ??? , OSR)

Consummate Liar
I Have Many Names
Jack of All Trades
Me's a Crowd: A major part of his powerset.
Noble Demon: He does have a sense of honour and will hold to his promises... as long as he can't Rules Lawyer out of it.
The Nondescript

Lilithium (Major, OSR)

One of the most powerful psychics in the Forum. Number Two to Gideon and the first of the original 200 OSR recruits.

Boxed Crook: The first time Gideon met her, she was under arrest for delivering some messy Pay Evil unto Evil.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer/With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Her sanity is... questionable at the best of times, but being one of the strongest psychics in the whole Forum makes her indispensable.
The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Despite her extensive expertise at psi-surgery, can't or hasn't turned it on herself.
The Gunslinger: One of the best at Guns Akimbo around.
Person of Mass Destruction: Has stupendously powerful Mind Control and telekinetic abilities.
Red Baron: "Pistol Witch".
Slasher Smile: A smile that bares too many teeth is just one of the obvious outward signs of her... less-than-sanity.

"New Guy" (???, 1st squad, C Company, Force Recon Special Tactics Team, MILCOMM)

A FNG in Frostbyght's squad.

Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": No one's bothered to learn his real name.
Genre Blind: He keeps Tempting Fate.
New Meat

Norgarth (Major, Havoc Teams, MILCOMM)

Blue-and-Orange Morality: Even by Forum standards.
Pungeon Master

NotAlwaysFanfic (???)

Retired Badass

Rei Ayanami Shepard (Commander, SPECTREs, MILCOMM)

An incarnation of Teh Rei who fell through a crack in reality into the Broken Lands. She is infamous for staging a coup that broke the Spectres from OSR control into MILCOMM hands, something Gideon and co. have never really forgiven her for.

Salazar (???)

Shibosho (Detective, FLEETSEC)

Beware the Nice Ones: He's patient and long-tempered, but don't test it.
Cool Mask
Energy Beings: One of his powers allows him to transform into one.
Flying Brick
Hand Blast
Healing Factor
Playing with Fire
Power of the Sun: His powers run on absorption of solar energy.
Split Personality: He has one that calls himself "Yoshikawa Shikoto", a Hot-Blooded For Great Justice sort.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality

Shiki Emiya (Senior Researcher / Lieutenant, Department of Development, Analysis, and Testing, OSR)

Accidental Pervert: His Fast Sealing Liquid invention bears an uncomfortable resemblance to a certain white sticky goo.
The Klutz
Sugar-and-Ice Personality
Stealth Expert/Stealth Hi/Bye: Very good at disappearing and staying that way, even by OSR and Original standards. All the more impressive for not actually being an on-record infiltration or recon specialist.

Silver sun 17 (???)

Spencer1519 (Captain, ???, MILCOMM)

Throw Down the Bomblet: Is an explosives specialist.

spudman (???)

Verthantine (???)

Sharp-Dressed Man

Warp L. Obscura (Commodore (Dr), 441st Squadron, CAOS, NAVCOMM)

Badass Bookworm: Still looks like a harmless intellectual. Doesn't speak much, is unfailingly polite when he does so. Make an enemy of him at your own peril.
The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Psychologist and psychiatrist. Barely short of clinical.

Elites Are More Glamorous: Averted with his CAOS membership.

It's What I Do: Expresses no regrets about being a killer.

Obfuscating Insanity: Inverted. He does a pretty good job of acting normal in front of others, but audio captures have revealed that he starts spouting Cloudcuckoolanderesque non sequitur phrases if he thinks there's no one watching.
Red Baron: "St. Elmo's Fire".
Retired Monster: Used to have far fewer qualms when he was younger.
Suspiciously Specific Denial: His profile mentions that a variety of canonical Stealth Experts have gone on record to deny teaching him anything.

Warpcy (Researcher / Lieutenant)

No Social Skills: Can be very inappropriately blunt, such as not understanding why removing fear and inhibition from others is a bad idea.

Individual characters (from existing fiction)

Alma (Lieutenant, OSR)

Applejack

Determinator: Astoundingly unwilling to admit defeat even by the very high standards of the Forum.
Forced Transformation: Was inadvertently turned human on her arrival in the Broken Lands.

Celestia

Skilled, but Naive: She was this back in the Black Queen War. Her younger self, while still stupendously powerful, naively held out for a cure to the Plague where far more experienced and hardened Forumers had established the impossibility of doing so. Reactions varied widely from admiration of her tenacity to derision. Centuries later in "present-day" Equestria, she still clings onto that belief.

Chifuyu Orimura

Badass Normal: Is so much of a Master Swordsman she can give ckk a run for his money.

Garrus Vakarian (Director, FLEETSEC)

Authority Equals Asskicking: Even back in the First Incursion he was competitive with Forum marksmen thousands of years his senior, and time has only made him sharper.

Homura Akemi

Poor Communication Kills: Has blown up (sometimes literally) over Madoka doing things with Forum citizens that Madoka willingly went into.

Pals with Jesus: With her as the deity.

Tabane Shinonono (Technically an Alternate Universe version)

Beyond the Impossible:
- The Forum code running ckk185's cyberbrain among others has been tested and proofed against hackers and intrusion AIs over thousands of years of attempts. Thus, a successful hack, much less by someone who'd never seen Forum code before, was considered impossible. Enter Tabane, who hacked it swiftly in her Establishing Character Moment.
- She does again later by managing to make a hack attempt even after he turned off the wireless.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing/Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Looks sweet from afar, which dissolves quickly when strangers approach. But earn her respect or affection and you'll learn that the first facade is not really a facade.
Emergency Transformation: By the time ckk and the Forum reinforcements got to her, she had been fatally wounded and the medical equipment on hand could not save her. So she was sped into becoming a Forum citizen, with the benefit that involves.
Moral Myopia: Demonstrated and later used against her. She mellows out slightly later. And this incarnation is already an improvement from the canon one.

Characters / The Universiad

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