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Crowded [Davian_Veq and Sigr]

Despite Taylor's delight at her siblings support of her own hobbies, she had to come up with a mature, cutting response to Michael's own jab. A deep breath, as if to retort with some witty remark at his expense, and Taylor quickly indulged her more immature side. Her tongue stuck out, and she blew a quick raspberry at her literary nemesis.

A giggle passed down the table, but no-one other than Bobby wanted to admit it, least of all to themselves. This heralded, however, the whole table digging in to the feast laid before them. Beef and carrot stew, a spoonful of goulash, some buttered new potatoes, and a healthy amount of broccoli and spinach later, Taylor was feeling absolutely stuffed. The others were in similar states, and the table looked almost bare, empty plates, platters, dishes and bowls scattered across its surface.
 
Dinner moved on normally, or as normal as it could be for those now eleven siblings, with a bit of small talk and soon a few different conversations depending on what part of the table you were set it. They could be a colorful bunch, and things were a bit weird, but for the most part and at least in that moment, Taylor could feel welcomed. As the evening advanced, Chris helped Bobby to bed, as the young one was dozing off at the table like a little child. Alan, Alice and Gareth excused themselves leaving the dining room one by one.

In the end Taylor was left with Michael and David, with Lucas and Matthew, but it was Jason the one who approached her first. "I'm sorry... I just was... eh" he mumbled, not finding the words to excuse his absentminded behavior. "I'm Jason and..." he looked around, those clear tea green eyes wandering. "I paint" he stated, as his colorfully smudged clothes weren't a clue. "I would like to paint you" he nodded, looking at her hopefully, causing a sigh on David and a smirk on Michael, while Lucas and Matthew seemed engaged on a discussion of their own.
 
Taylor was clearing up, watching the other slowly trickle away for their evenings, when Jacob approached. The absent-minded artist walked towards her, his request a minor surprise. "Well, I've never done anything like that before... can I leave that as a maybe and get back to you on it in the next few days, when I know how busy I'll be." Truth be told, the reactions from the twins had sent a wave of uncertainty washing over her at the implications. The elder pair, however, seemed to wrapped up in their conversation to notice the interactions at the other side if the table.

Trying her best to ignore Michael's smirking gaze, Taylor ferried the last load of cutlery through to the kitchen, content to let someone else wash up the pile next to the sink.
 
"Oh, yeah, I didn't mean it like right now or anything. Thank you for considering it" Jason said politely, looking happy about it and scooting away who knew where. He didn't seem to have a knack for words, but his eyes spoken for him plenty. With silence Taylor could hear that Matthew and Lucas were talking about some changes and renovations done to the decor of the club or something similar, while the twins were just idling by, both of them feigning a great deal of interest but clearly not wanting to leave Taylor in the kitchen alone with the other. It had been a long day and it was perhaps time to end it and walk away from that fraternal minefield at least for the night's duration.
 
Leaving the others behind, Taylor wandered out to the main hall, trudging upstairs to the rooms. As she walked along she slowly made her way back to the corridor of rooms, walkin to the door she had been introduced to earlier. A tremendous yawn shivered through her body as she entered, and she was soon asleep, nestled beneath soft blankets, the events of the evening whirling through her unconscious mind.

... ... ...

Taylor jerked awake. Her phone was ringing with her morning alarm, and she stretched, and moved, half-concious to the shower concealed in the ensuite. A refreshing deluge later, a casual t-shirt and shorts donned (not forgetting the bra from yesterday's... incident) Taylor pushed open her door to the new day.
 
Once out of the shower, her phone seemed to be buzzing with activity. One of the brothers must have gotten her number from their parents, or maybe they looked her out in Facebook or something and now she had heaps of social network notifications and updates, as the reality of having ten siblings settled into her life. She had notifications from some kind of mobile game from Bobby and a Twitter follow from Alan, Instagram follows from Alice, Michael and David, Facebook friend requests from almost everyone and seemingly nothing from Gareth. Suddenly a whole sea of pictures and activities from days past were at simple view, an open window to her siblings' lives. There was nothing from her parents, too busy having fun on their honeymoon to update their profiles, but Chris had tagged them in a picture that she didn't notice him taking of her smiling and surrounded by a few of their siblings during dinner. It certainly seemed that she was settling in, that was for sure.

Now, with her siblings who knew where, the house seemed awfully empty, almost too calm. The kitchen was empty and clean, and a whole new day opened up in front of Taylor. What was she going to do? If she needed to reach anyone from her family, he could do it through her phone with ease.
 
Finished with her phone, and in the kitchen. The first thing was the best thing - coffee. Checking the cast iron range's hot plate, giving a comforting heat to the chilly kitchen, Taylor rooted around for an espresso pot and some beans. Cupboard after cupboard she went through, and after some time she gave up. Her own would have to do. Grumpily she stomped back up the stairs to her room, digging through her boxes until she found her own coffee stuff.

Ten minutes later, coffee brewed, and some yoghurt and fruit retrieved and eaten, Taylor was actually feeling capable of functioning today.

First she remembered the pile of boxes in her room, and returned to the mess she had made to start unpacking. A memory from yesterday came to her, and she quickly texted Matthew to ask for his input. After all, as much as it was her room now, this was his area of expertise and interest. After this, a digital picture frame was dug out, and quickly uploading the photo from the previous dinner, placed it in pride of place upon her bedside table. Tearing up with smiles, Taylor wiped her face, and started to pull her clothes out of their boxes, probably best to get those out of the way before Matthew got here...
 
The kitchen was so big and everything stuffed up to, probably, Chris' desires that finding something specific without knowing the place better was a nightmare, so Taylor had to resort to find coffee in her belongings. Breakfast did wonders for her mood and capabilities, so she started to rummage through her things, slowly getting things sorted out. "Of course! I'll be there in a moment!" Matthew answered her text, seemingly eager to lend a hand with all things decor. With her garments spread all around the place, Taylor heard a knock on her door. It couldn't be Matt, could he? Unless he was still around the house when she texted him.

Behind the door was Alan, his neon green eyes looking a bit tired upwards to her, wearing some kind of sports jersey of a team she didn't know and taking sips from a Monster energy drink can. "Good morning" he mumbled. "I just..." Alan seemed unsure. "I'm sure you are capable yourself, so I probably am just being a nuisance, but Chris insisted that I had to lend you a hand if you needed help with a computer, the phone or whatever. If you don't have your own gear I've a spare and a couple laptops too" he shrugged, as it was nothing. "Sponsors" he just added as it was an explanation in and by itself. "I told him that an engineer won't need help with computers, so yeah, I should get going..." he said, looking eager to skitter away to his room.
 
Taylor had some sense of order, at least. A pile for shirts, panties, socks... drawers would have to wait, but she would prefer to at least get her underwear out of the way before anyone came knocking. Too late, the knock and entry came.

"Ah, good morning Alan. Thanks, I've just got my crappy old laptop in here, My phone is good, but I would really appreciate your help, I have so much to sort out and set up... Let's see, I think the table over there. Help me move it, would you?" The combined muscle power of two scrawny teens shifted the desk around by 90 degrees, creating a small section of the room for computers, notes, work books and the like.

"A computer for me? I might be able to game a bit as well..." muttered under her breath. Taylor suddenly perked up, and moved over to the shelves in the other corner. "Can you help me grab these, too please Alan?"
 
Alan had nowhere to flee once Taylor had recruited his help to move furniture of all things, finishing his can of caffeinated sugar and throwing it to a garbage can in a corner before getting ready to lend a hand. His eyes unavoidable wandered the room, quickly returning to Taylor as he blushed at the sight of the underwear pile, a most unusual sight for him. Now he had the image of those small garments burned in his mind, and wanted it erased as soon as possible as he tried to help with the desk. It was patent that the puny kid was in a horrible shape, as just that left him winded and huffing.

"Do you... game too...?" despite the lack of breath, his eyes looked livelier than ever as soon as she mentioned it. "I bring it as soon as we are done, it's not as powerful as my rig, but it's still a pretty good hardware" he said, looking a bit proud. "What do you play?" he asked, looking a bit dismayed when asked to help with the shelves, but still approaching to do so.
 
Taylor was delighted at Alan's help, as they heaved the desk around she noticed him glance at her underwear. An unavoidable flush washed through her face. Oh why couldn't she have gotten them out of the way already?

"Thanks for your help, Alan. Mainly strategy stuff like starcraft or Civ, but I've played Warframe for yonks, and a decent stealth game or builder catches my eye every now and then. Ooh, and the RPGs. Pretty standard stuff, fallout, elder scrolls, that kind of thing. Ah, I managed to game on a laptop for three years, so anything's better than that, really." As they babbled on, slowly shifting the shelves towards to other corner, Taylor noticed Alan's condition.

"Oh no, I'm sorry Alan, I shouldn't have asked you to help me with these heavy shelves! Are you alright?"
 
Alan's eyes brightened even more when Taylor mentioned the games she played, sharing interest on many of them. "I mostly play competitive multiplayer titles, be it League of Legends, Hearthstone or any flavor of the month. For the stream and all that" he admitted. Maybe she didn't watch many gaming streams, if not she'd have recognized one of Twitch TV's top streamers. "But sometimes it's nice to play something calmer. I'm sick of Minecraft though" nodded, focusing his efforts on the heavy lifting instead of chatting, ending up more winded than the first time, and worse of all, utterly embarrassed.

"I..." Alan mumbled, gasping, having Taylor worry and close wasn't helping his embarrassment of being so weak in front of his sister. "yeah... it's just... I just got up from an streaming marathon and..." he tried to excuse himself and his puny physical strength, male pride at its worst. "Give me... a moment..." he sat down on her bed, unaware of how close he was to the pile of underwear he glimpsed before.
 
"Yeah, Minecraft's been played to death by this point. Got into Factorio recently, and that is way too addictive." Taylor may have been a casual gamer, but she was not particularly invested in the streaming community.

Alan's embarrassment did not go unnoticed, and Taylor did her best to console her semi-celebrity brother, sitting down beside him on her bed, brushing some pile of clothes out of the way. "Hey Alan, look. Not everyone has to be all this strong, physical dudebro. You know your strengths, right? Your mind. Strategy, tactics, knowledge and reactions are so much more useful than just being able to, to lift heavy weights. Besides," and here Taylor's voice took on a more wily tone, "We can always shift the physical work onto other people, and make them think it was their idea all along. Why do you think I'm an engineer? It means getting the best result with the minimum of effort, on our part at least. We can afford to be sneaky. Look, Matthew's on his way, I'll show you."
 
"Yeah... trying to build the perfect self sustaining system it's always fun" Alan nodded when Taylor talked about Factorio. It wasn't a big hit with the community, but at least no subscriptors had requested him to play one of those farming simulators. When Taylor sat next to him, Alan shuffled nervous, but he nodded to her words, sighing more relaxed. It was still tough being so weak, specially after all he had to endure when he was younger, but Taylor wasn't just right, she was also gentle and seemingly eager to prove her words rang true and wasn't just an empty pep talk.

"Hi you two" Matthew greeted, receiving a weak 'Hi Matt' by Alan. It was kind of weird seeing Alan out of his nerd cave, and seeing him there with Taylor brightened Matt's face, even if he soon returned into the topic he was interested in. "I told you I'd be here in a moment" he said, as it wasn't it already obvious. Matthew's clothes were minimalist and professional, with his clean ivory light sweater and black pants, his clothes adding a serious touch to his usually friendly face, framed by those playful blonde curls. "What can I help you with? Do you want to go shopping for decor? Carpets? Curtains? Accessories?" he offered himself, seemingly eager to do some shopping. If he noticed the clothing disarray in the bed, and it was unlikely that he didn't, Matthew didn't even flinch.
 
"Good morning, Matt! Yeah there's some stuff I'd love to pick up, but first I'd like your opinion on a desk setup. I thought of having it over in this corner, but it just feel a bit closed-in, you know what I mean? Maybe we could move it over here?" Gesturing to a sub-optimal position next the wardrobe, Taylor carefully pushing Matthew's interests to a different conclusion. Beneath the window was far better, anyway. As Matthew cocked his head in confusion, Taylor moved over to the window ostensibly for a different angle, letting the sunlight fall on her hair and shoulders naturally. She was sure that it would push Matthew's thoughts toward light quality.

Careful manipulation was the name of the game, and with any luck, she could get Matthew to move her desk entirely himself, and show Alan just what she had meant.
 
Matthew's eyes lingered on Alan briefly, turning his whole attention to Taylor. Alan was looking at her too, specially when the sunlight hit her. "No, no, no..." Matthew's voice broke the magic as he approached the desk, rolling up his sleeves. "Here it's all wrong, let me" he moved in, dragging the heavy furniture with effort. "It's a desk, you need light on it, not to mention that next to the wardrobe it would..." he stopped talking, focused on putting things in place. A couple of pushes and pulls after, things were as they should, so Matthew could unroll his sleeves to look prim as usual once more. Matthew sighed looking at Taylor after putting the desk in place. "I don't want to say it, or call you hopeless, but you really, really need my help" he nodded. "Were you doing something? I can wait" he commented, looking at Alan.

"No... it's fine" Alan looked calmer, happier, as it seemed that Taylor's trick had done the job. "I'll do some set up job on the computer and bring it once you come back" he nodded, returning to his room almost as if he was fleeing away.

"I guess that leaves us to face the furnishing of the place" Matthew shrugged. "We should probably go shopping. My minivan may be boring but it's huge and serves the purpose of carrying bigger things if needed be" he paused for a moment. "Don't make a face, expenses are on the house, mom said that you had to feel welcome" he nodded.
 
As Matthew started to push things around the room, into just the spot Taylor had wanted to begin with, Taylor shifted back over towards Alan, and a smirk showed as she walked towards him. "See what I mean?" Sotto voce to Alan. A few minor giggles, averted before Matt turned back to look at them, were shared in triumph.

At Matthew's remark, Taylor needed some sort of response. In a snooty voice, in the british aristocratic style, Taylor responded. "Well, I'm definitely not the most experienced with interior design. I bow to your superior abilites in that regard, dear brother."

As her recently calmer brother all but disappeared from her room, Taylor shouted "Thanks Alan!" out the door to him. He was probably already back in his room, however. "Yeah Matt, I'd love to go shopping. I kind of feel bad for not being able to contribute, I mean you've all given me so much already... the van'll be helpful though. Shall we?" After lacing up her boots, and with one hand on his arm, Taylor led him out of the room, letting Matt take the lead towards the garage. She was slowly getting the hang of this house, her mental map expanding and adding to itself with each passing corner or doorway. The garage, when they came to it, was rather large, with eleven people, thirteen now, living in one house, there was a real array of vehicles. Sports cars, fourbyfours, a prosaic looking town car, the blue sedan Chris had mentioned.. and over there was the minivan. A sturdy looking thing, Taylor thought approvingly.
 
Matthew snapped some pictures of the room with his phone, "As references" he mumbled, and was ready to head to the garage. "I have the sizes of the room and all noted here on the phone, so that saves us some time" he shrugged as they got into the minivan. "I don't want to make you crazy changing the room completely unless you want to, we can do small things too, like a couple lamps and a rug if you prefer" he offered, his little locks had a bouncy spring when he moved his head. He seemed completely oblivious to what she had done to rise Alan's spirit, and started to drive them out of the suburbs. "I know that this is the start of your first day here, but I hope that we weren't too much yesterday. I mean, as much as Chris is good willed... maybe meeting us all at once can get intense" he commented with a small smile. Being the second oldest son probably gave him quite the perspective, even if he looked a bit more air headed than Chris or Lucas, he was still a couple years older than her. He was thankful that she didn't argue about the family covering the expenses, and let herself to be pampered, at least a little bit.

Matthew's sea green eyes looked lively to the road, seemingly not only enjoying this because it was his specialty, but also because he was with Taylor. "We can go to Ikea if you want to pick a lot of things at once, it's a bit bland but it's fast and practical" he commented. He didn't seem snobby at all, and he really wasn't, each place served its purpose and there was nothing wrong with it. "If you are up to invest the morning into a bit of weird hunting, there are like half a dozen of shops downtown" Matthew said. "There is an antique one if you like those things, a couple of second hand stores if you want something with personality and don't mind it being previously owned, and several from different cultures and smaller quaint ones" he explained. "I mean, how is the room of my little engineer sister going to look?" he wondered aloud. "There are no wrong answers, well unless you want me to drag that desk by myself" he laughed.
 
As they drove along, Taylor was careful enough to keep an eye on the surroundings. Always useful to know the surrounding area, of course, especially if she needed to head into town herself, or something.

"Actually, Bobby was kind enough to show me around and introduce some of the family before we had dinner. A better introduction than a hazy sloshed-up wedding reception, at least." A slightly hollow chuckle at her own mistakes followed. "I can honestly say, though, it's really nice to spend some time with each of you, lets us get to know and understand each other. Still a bit weird to have siblings now though..."

"Well, I do just love the polished and varnished woods of a good antique, maybe a small table, a set of drawers. A good rug I would adore. One thing I would love above all else though... a proper, tilting drawing board. With a drafting machine. As useful as CAD stuff is, it just doesn't have the personal feel of hand-drawn schematics, you know? It's going to be tricky though - I'll look into that on my own time. Ah, that reminds me, I'll need to remake my tech-drawing kit as well. Any thoughts on that, Matt?"

"Hey wait, I'm not that little!" Fake indignation spreading quickly across Taylor's face.
 
Matthew was glad that the weird thing the wedding was didn't bother Taylor as much as it could. It wasn't like she had done anything embarrassing, not much at least, but he liked that she moved on and allowed herself to have a laugh at it. "Even being one of the older, I can't really know how is life without a bunch of siblings" he shrugged, letting Taylor talk about her preferences. "Then Ikea is out of the picture. Downtown shopping it is" he smiled. It seemed that even if something more industrial was an option he kept open, he enjoyed that Taylor had picked the other choice. He couldn't help but laugh a bit when she talked about manual drawing.

"On your own time? No way" he smiled. "We can get you a drawing kit in a shop I know downtown. They have drawing boards made to order, with the specifications and measures you want to feel comfortable. It will take weeks, but in the meantime you can come to the studio and grab one of my old ones" he said, looking at her. "Didn't anyone told you I'm an architect? I have material to spare. I know that my decoration hobby gets the best of me, but I'm still a professional, you know?" he said, jolly. It was true that his easygoing behavior made hard to look at him like a serious architect and was easier to picture him like a happy decorator, victim of the cliches he was.

"Well, you are quite tall, but that doesn't make you any older than me, so little it is" Matthew joked. With the animated conversation they had made quite the trip already, and they couldn't be too far from their destination.
 
"Yeah, I know. I'm enjoying having older brothers now, you know, having people around to do the whole, help and support thing. 'S just really nice." She leaned into his hand as Matt reached up to pat her on the head.

The road passed along behind them, houses, trees, and eventually shops whizzing by the car into the background. Taylor and Matt continued their small talk, learning and laughing about similarities and differences, their shared passion of buildings, and chatting about the town. Taylor was delighted. He seemed so knowledgeable, the type of person she could lean on when she was bewildered, or lost. Her dad had not been like that after her first mom had died, just quiet, and Taylor had had to learn to look after herself and her dad at the same time. Her happiness at his own fortune was tempered by a low resentment at his inability to help her, and...

They had arrived, and Matt was apparently kind enough to let her have some time to think. They had pulled up outside a lovely old shop, low doorframe, ancient hand-carved sign, and it even had an actual bell set to ring when you opened the door! Taylor was quickly pulled out of her funk at the happiness and delight at the old shop, filled to bursting with lovely old furniture.
 
Matthew smiled, seeing that whatever was eating at Taylor seemed to disappear when they entered there. It was probably nothing, just that such a change could be overwhelming, specially when the only one she knew, her father, was still away with their mother. The place had a quaint feeling to it, almost organized and stocked with childlike wonder, half way between charming but busted things that would require restoration to pieces of furniture that were in decent state but outdated. There were no price tags to be seen, so any information needed would have to go through the owner of the place, someone that didn't get long to appear between a sea of old wood.

"Hi Matt! Didn't expect you here!" the owner of the voice and likely of the shop was a young woman that looked slightly older than him. Twenty seven? Twenty nine perhaps? It was somewhat hard to decide. She was wearing denim overalls with a tank top behind them, brown dreads bouncing as she walked. Despite her jolly self, she seemed more interested in her than in Matt, as she looked at her with brown eyes more at her than anything else.

"Amanda" Matthew just said with a smile. "This is Taylor, my newfound younger sister" he introduced her.

"Oh! So you are her!" Amanda strangely greeted, as she seemed to have heard of her. "Glad to meet you" she said, shaking her hand. Amanda smelled of shaven wood and varnish, and looked like she was working on something while there were no customers. "How's Jason?" she asked, her attention briefly returning to Matthew.

"Still stuck I guess?" he shrugged, seemingly unable to answer any further about what she wanted to know about another of their brothers.

"Too bad. He's quite good" she muttered, returning her attention to Taylor. Amanda was way smaller than her, so she had to look upwards to do it. "So, do you like my place? Take a look, I will be on the back if you need anything" Amanda asked her, giving Taylor space to not be all over her while she looked around.
 
Taylor looked around intently at the objects and furniture on display, both those which had been refurbished, and also those which were the worse for wear. Glancing down at the energetic woman who had appeared from the back room, a twitch of the lips at her energy helped with her first impression.

"Hi Amanda, nice to meet you." She stuck her hand out to shake, and Amanda took it with gusto, the smell of varnish and wood wafting slightly as she shook enthusiastically.

As Amanda disappeared into the backdrop, Taylor took a little more time to look around in detail.

An ancient table with only three legs, but a delightful inset glass surface.

Two chairs with the backs full of elegant fretwork, which looked as though a child had attacked them with a screwdriver.

Several working desks, and ancient battered sea-chest, several badly-painted sets of shelves, but best (in Taylors' eyes) was tucked away in a corner, behind a pair of musty-looking sofas.

A mahogany roll-top desk, with a several sliding drawers, a green baize writing surface, a plethora of tiny cupboards inside, and even a matching swivel stool.

"Oh my. Come over here, Matt. Just take a look at this beauty. What's this, maybe... 1870s? Oh. If nothing else, I would so love this."

"You have a good eye, Taylor" Taylor jumped as Amanda seemingly appeared out of nowhere beside her.
 
As Taylor wandered around the jungle of beautiful but broken furniture, Matthew had the sense to not disturb her and limited to follow her a couple steps behind, enjoying her inquisitive eye and general enthusiasm. He was still thinking that maybe he should check on Jason, although during last night's dinner he had looked mostly... well, himself. A slight shake of his head sent his curls bouncing around, and allowed him to focus on her sister. She was looking everywhere, not much different from the boy in a candy shop approach that he had the first time Matt visited the place. He saw a couple of interesting things himself here and there, but at the moment he was too busy with work as to spend much time restoring a furniture. Well, maybe he could work a bit in the weekends to decompress, but still he wasn't particularly free.

A small yelp brought his attention back to Taylor, as she stumbled upon a magnificent desk full of little details. "Probably" he managed to add, his decoration hobby made him aware that Taylor had probably nailed the date, something he didn't exactly expect, and soon Amanda appeared out of nowhere. Sometimes Matthew would swear that the shop was some kind of magic place and Amanda was a genie, a witch or who knew what.

"Mahogany and Australian Cedar, with a bit of Tasmanian Huon Pine" Amanda commented with expertise. "Australian made, colonial style and yeah, mid to late eighteen hundreds" she looked appreciative at Taylor, since she had the correct date. "I got it on a fair and instantly knew it had to be mine" she explained. "Well, not exactly mine..." she caressed it with a hand, nostalgic, "but my ex doesn't deserve it" her attention returned to Taylor. "It's a bit hard having it around, you know? But it's also hard letting it go" Amanda certainly didn't seem the kind of woman that kept things for herself, as she was just there blabbing with Taylor who had met minutes ago. She looked at the furniture with longing, then back at Taylor again. "You can have it for the amount it costed me, I'm sure you'll give it a better use than any of the rich hipsters that wander around here" she snorted, derisive.

"Here" Matthew, that had been deliberately waiting on the sidelines stepped in, extending a credit card for Amanda to grab.
 
Matthew and Amanda's validation of her guess at the desk's age caught Taylor by surprise, and she was shocked when Amanda told her about its personal history.

As Amanda walked off with Matts credit card, Taylor sprang into a hug with him, "Thankyou!"s spilling out of her mouth. As Taylor accidentally ground her body against his understated muscles and similar frame, his hand reached up and patted her head, and Taylor rapidly blushed, let go, and stammered an apology. "Um, sorry, but thankyou so much. Amanda didn't even say what the price was, and you just bought it anyway!"

Amanda wandered back, an eyebrow raised at the display of affection, and Taylor quickly worries just what she had read into the scene she saw.
 
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