middleofsomewhere | So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

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So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

JUST Ā̸̛͇̹̈́͌͐͛̐̋͝Ǹ̵̠͍̲̘͈̮͈̺͔̤͙̳̓̔͑͌̒̓̃́̄̚͘Ớ̶̻̱̄̓͆͂̈́̄̔͋͌̽̀̕͘T̵͙͍͓̻̩͙̻͙̹͎̫̘͇̱̈́̌̓͝ͅH̶̭̻͇̰͈̯̦̹̦̗͐̒́Ẽ̵̡̡̘̳͉͇͚̼̗̣̩͎̞̏͒̈́̏͂̈͝Ř̴̠͋̐͘ NORMAL DAY

"Jinnjar citizens. Unfortunately, all train travel will be closed due to issues on the lines. Members of the Voidtrecker Express have been located around the city, and are deploying trickery to agitate and confuse us. We ask any volunteers at this time to help us locate any suspicious objects and people, and to restrain them.

For the f̴̘̯̰̦̺͖̔͌̋̃ũ̴̢̖̦͙̩̼̺̪͚͍̥͈̜̝͋̌̒̊̚ẗ̶̪̺͕̤̯̞̤͓̝́̑̄̎̊̕future of our city!"

A TL;DR notes version of days/prompts: (click to show)

EVENT BASICS:

DAYS 5 & 6:

By now, some people have broken out of their fake lives while some haven't. Tension is rising in the city as people are led to believe this is by the Voidtreckers, which some will believe due to illusions and messing with one's heads is believed to be one of their many tactics.
Some oddities are occurring with travel, and glimpses of how the city is made beginning to show. The streams of colour - the void - are getting brighter. Electronics are not working well. Some monster sightings are seen, but not to a large degree.
The prompts here are light to give characters and players time to ICly coordinate, as Voidtreckers are being more actively hunted. Some faces are known. You know who you are, troublemakers.

DAYS 7 & 8:

The world is really starting to go a bit wild now, with more things disappearing, animals on the loose and more monster sightings.
By the end of day eight most people have realised the truth though those who are very susceptible to mind control or very stubbornly wanting to believe in this world will still be trapped, believing this is the Voidtreckers doing.
There are monsters to fight, people to keep calm and a plan to make.

[ HOME SWEET...HOME? ] By day 5, the people of Jinnjar are in a state of anxiety more than before. There's those who realise they're not a part of this world, never were, while there's those who still cling onto this life. Health services say that the source of confusion comes from the colour trails that are brighter than ever in the sky, while the D-Force/Heroes have it confirmed - internally and publicly - that there are Voidtreckers amongst them.

The media shows pictures of potential suspects, some Voidtreckers, some not; a man with the same face as two others, one who made a show by creating ice in the middle of the street. Your face may be shown, but don't worry - they're asking people not to play vigilante.

That'll surely keep people behaved.

[ TRAVEL REVIEW. ] As if it couldn't get more frustrating, most of the trains are down. Air taxis are still available for short journeys, yet some people have the bizarre occurrence where they end up in the wrong spot, and even remember going in this wrong direction...but never say anything about it. Those using the tele-pads will also find themselves not always arriving where they should, or worse, suffering intense headaches, swirling colours behind their eyes, their thoughts jumbled for as long as ten minutes before it passes.

You might want to walk.

[ MAKING DO. ] Still, with all the chaos, many are trying to live. You have a life here, no matter what some other force is trying to make you believe,

For our HEROES: The cinema has rethought its showings due to the worrying happenings of the last few days. Clearly a boost in morale is needed and so they have pulled out some of the great films of the past. Action films that show heroes beating the bad guys, disaster films where the good guys beat the aliens, stop the natural disaster or thwart the secret agency looking to take down civilisation from the inside, at the last minute. Even the childrens films have taken on a pro-hero and triumphant air.

It's not quite distraction though, how could it be when every film has a warning before and after. REMEMBER TO REPORT ALL SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY TO DFORCE and WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE SHOW. REMEMBER TO WATCH YOUR SURROUNDINGS AS CAREFULLY AS YOU DID THE SCREEN.
Fun Park: It's for the kids, but one of the largest arcade parks has a special discount on everything to anyone who come visit. It's even advertised across the news: For half the price, get amazing fun and even better food! Kids younger than eight or from the orphanages get free access everywhere!

It's time not to think too hard, and to ignore the trouble! Play laser tag, racing cars or get a high score on the dance mat!
Encroaching Dangers: Something new is beginning to happen, as the city continues to shift. It starts at night, those that stay out past when the streets go quiet might see a shadow, might hear a growl.

Rumours and reports start to spread about monsters on the street.

DAY SIX: HELP FROM INSIDE

[ AID. ] DIAGNET is full of videos but one that has started doing the rounds is of a small droid and a cat. It's not hard to see why it has gone viral, the cat and cleaning droid are chasing each other around an apartment, caught on a home security footage. The cat tries to catch the droid but every time it gets close the droid turns to chase it and the cat runs away. It has been uploaded with stirring orchestral music, which adds to the madness.

But... For those Voidtreckers who have already regained their memories that little droid seems familiar indeed. As do the sounds that punctuate the music.

beep beep beep boop | boop

boop boop beep | boop boop boop

boop boop | boop boop boop | boop boop boop | boop beep | boop beep beep | beep beep boop | beep beep beep | boop

boop beep boop beep | beep boop | beep beep boop beep | beep

boop boop boop | beep boop beep | boop beep beepp | beep | beep boop beep

boop beep | beep beep boop | boop | beep boop beep | beep beep | boop | beep | beep boop

Of course it might not be anything, just weird droid sounds that haven't been fully edited out of the video.

[ MOONDUST CAFÉ. ] It might be that they figured out the message or, it might be that a friend is dragging them to the cafe. But for those that make their way there, they will find the Moondust Cafe is a bustling cafe on the edge of a park, near local transport links.

For those that say the right words, a slightly bored looking teenager manning the counter waves them to a side door. "Best sit downstairs, service will be quicker."

Downstairs has a fair number of tables and booths and is lit by coloured lighting making everything look a little obscure. There's soft music playing, not loud enough to make it impossible to hear each other but enough to make it a little harder for evesdroppers.

Mingle, discuss. This is probably the closest to a safe space there is.

[ LOST & LOST. ] You may have spotted it already - that is, spotted what's missing. There's been the pets, the birds in the sky, a pen or apple or wrench from the garage. But now, with every single bad thing going on, more is starting to disappear. Machines stop working, from air conditioning, freezers, your Jinnjar MP3 player, to TVs and more.

And in some business buildings, even entire rooms are gone, their floors empty of more than the door you opened to find this out. Even the heroes seem worried and they quickly clear any affected areas, chasing away bystanders and sealing off whole wings of office blocks.

None of them have answers though, except that this must be the Voidtreckers doing. After all who else but that group could have power enough to do such damage?

DAY SEVEN & EIGHT: UNRAVELLING

[ OVEREXPOSURE. ] Everything is starting to escalate. The headaches are getting regular the more you're outside, buildings are starting to go missing around the outskirts. People see parts of the city flickering, and when they reach certain sections of the city, they find they can't go beyond it.

Life tries to go on, but as more areas of the city begin to be sealed off and considered dangerous, even those who are most stubborn about pretending everything is normal can see that is is not.

[ LET LOOSE. ] The breaking down of the city has caused a lot of chaos, but one of the biggest problems are that parts of the zoo have vanished. Walls, fences, enclosure roofs. Meaning that the animals inside are no longer confined and are now prowling the city streets. Real birds now fill the sky that the fakes left empty.

And they aren't all that's there. Twisted creatures are becoming more common on the streets of Diagad. Creatures that look almost like animals but warp and twist between them, one moment a bear the next it has horns and then it is a wolf. But no matter how they look those claws and teeth are bad news for everyone.

[ CRUMBLING, CRUMBLING. ] By day eight whole streets are disappearing. homes, houses. people need to be moved in closer around the congress sector. Colours crackle through the sky like lightning and the world shakes often.

It's not just the infrastructure but the memories of those in the city. Dreams have come realities and all but the most stubborn have begun to realise that this world is not their own. They are from another place. What is going on? Why are they in this city? Who are these people who are their 'family'?

Confusion and anger are growing in the streets and it is perhaps time for the Voidtreckers to come out of the shadows.

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He takes one look at the doors beyond, before he decides to take the plunge. He closes his eyes only briefly before stepping up to the proverbial plate, arms crossed over his chest.

"All right. Here goes nothing."

A mantra spoken more to himself and the group than the entity disembodied and whole at the same time; a curious visage flashing in his mind that he will use to make his words more amenable. Elidibus is correct to that extent - they needed to understand who and what this was first.

"My name is Roland," he starts off, voice stern and bellowing, yet not unkind. A man used to speaking in public, and then some. "Do you go by anything?" A pause. "We'd like to understand the story behind your...play." So-called. Best to speak in a flavor it recognizes. "And why you chose us to be a part of it?"

Wei Wuxian stays more conversational, inclining his head to Elidibus, the... possessor of Olivia. Roland speaks, and he listens, the smile on his lips polite and considering as his thoughts flow.

He raises his hands again, the same motion: politeness is what it is, and he doesn't agree with this presence's actions, but he can understand some portion of them, something of grieving.

"To call this a show, and an act, this Wei Wuxian does and doesn't understand. If that's what you know if it, if this stage of your crafting is one you know a stage, not a truth, if the people pulled from homes or otherwise and made to play roles in the brief time of this stage's construction... what end do you hope to see?"

[Nodding at Elidibus, Masumi finally takes the chance to speak to the entity after Roland and Wei Wuxian have asked their questions. She puts in the effort to keep calm, well aware that hostility won’t help.]

My name is Masumi Sera. My question is how long you intend to keep this play going. Kind of related to what Wei Wuxian is asking, but I get the feeling you don’t want it to end despite how hard it has to be to keep a play on this scale going.

[The disappearing pets, for example. Things aren’t as stable as they should be if this were a normal world.

Admittedly, Masumi could bring up what they’d said back on the last world about Diagad, but she doesn’t want to risk reminding the entity about that.]

"There is no such thing as the perfect first draft." Now when he speaks, a good chunk of years have been cut off; a young man in his prime, ready for the world. "If you stumble, do you not get back up? If countless lives depended on you, would you not work yourself to give them as they needed? Every life is a play with acts, this Wei Wuxian!"

Papers, scriptures, all methods of communication flutter up in a sudden gush around the group. The air itself becoming imprinted too with different manners of writing, of texts and imagery.

They fade as the voice goes on. "What is a play? What is truth? What do I go by? When will I stop? Questions that hold no meaning to me. I listened to the plays of many, their lives mingling in the current that I was swept away in. Joy, love, death, sorrow, anger, pain. Yes, so many stories ended in that time, so many. But I will be the anomaly, soon, soon I will reverse. I will renew. I will bring back what's been taken, and let it be my masterpiece - a play that will not END BY THE ONES THAT DEVOURED IT."

They see with the entity's anger, the sky above them turn to darkness, where cube-like shapes lingering as if forming clouds. They're then torn apart into nothing, though their presence leaves with the group a sense of a brewing under the surface - a person who has become unsettled.

And the air around whispering, like the manics of a mad man, his voice multiple, all layered over one another:

'Things will be different', 'I will be the Chaos', 'I will change things', 'I will right the wrongs', 'My final act', 'Everlasting act', 'A world for all', 'Safety', 'Protect them', 'A new Diagad', 'Let me be Chaos to madness'...

That this is a form of 'practice'- this and earlier efforts perhaps- is something Elidibus expected.

He listens to the questions and answers. As words and literature are plastered in the air around him, he does his best to observe these too; if not to understand their message, if any, now, then to commit it to memory and attempt to interpret it later. If there's any possible chance that there's a clue or knowledge hidden within them...

And then the sky, filled with cube-shapes that are then destroyed. Are they the cause of the anguish? Or a symptom?

This self-titled 'Chaos' sings a song Elidibus knows far too well.

"We have heard your world, Diagad, is no more but we do not know why or how. Nor what part is played by the darkened skies and these... cubes, nor the ones you speak of as the cause. Would you allow those of us here willing, to hear and see the the Final Days of your world? I for one, would submit myself to such a tale."

Elidibus's words as as courteous as always. But those astute or sensitive to such matters would hear the keen sense of empathy present.

...But he would not put all of them on the table. And for that reason alone there is a caveat present; one can only hope if the entity will indulge them, that it would also respect whether the others were willing to put forth the risk.

"So it seems at times," he says, calm enough, "But I've found it's political plays I have the least patience for, at the cost of innocent lives. There's no play that justifies their deaths or displacements, only unjust ones people convince themselves are otherwise."

There isn't heavy judgement when he speaks, but instead a sense of factual statement. Abducting people is not just; and violence escalates. Voidtreckers are already being blamed for the instability, and that sources back to the belief of the supporter of the system as a whole.

"Undoing the past... it's a wish, a wanting. I can understand the impulse." But it isn't something true. "But actors are still acting. A play is still a play. Truth is offstage, not performing on it."

[It’s a lot to take in, and Masumi needs a moment to respond to this. But respond she does, with a glance at Elidibus for his suggestion in particular.]

…I would be willing to see what happened too, if it’s all right with you. I’ve been looking into what happened, and from what I understand, what happened shouldn’t have. You have every right to be upset. But…

[And here she pauses, finding the words.]

…This isn’t the answer. This play is exactly that; a play.

[She’s sympathetic, but can’t get behind the entity’s actions in response to their world being destroyed.]

Disturbance hangs in the air, a disgruntled man left to his half-drowsy thoughts. But scoffs, derision does sound itself as Wei Wuxian and Masumi Sera have their pieces in particular.

'A play is a play is a play is a play. What's just? What's right? What's fair? Little is in life, justice built on sacrifice and pain and nothing, pah, actors who do not understand that life itself is the great stage of them all!'

With the sky already dark, they will feel the spotlights turn on them from nowhere, the roaring applause and cheers of an unseen crowd.

'This is life. Existence. Fair and right? Rules and laws that existence doesn't abide to. We are all its actors; planets, the very stars the settings for stories. Vast, vast, vast I have heard so many, clinging to me even to this day. You wish to go back to the script, to that page of that day? It's easy for me: it is imprinted into who I've become.'

Become. The word echoes as if spoken down a pipe, booming, everything around them turns so dark, and then stings. The four of them are out on an open-air theatre at some park; words coming from them in their voices though their mouths don't need to speak. They can take a moment to examine their surroundings: where the stage they stand on has been transformed, mimicking the scenery of inside a court, where some drama is occurring. About justice, about righteousness. There are many people in the audience, watching, having fun.

You can tell it's a normal day, a fun day, everything well and fine. A man, someone hard-working, passionate; he controls this entire play, every single person on the stage is crafted by his love and care.

You don't see him, and yet, he is you. With you - you are a part of his play, and Diagad's purple skies are as beautiful as always...

"Life and existence can be kind or tragic. And these are fitting subjects to address as a play." The words Elidibus first speaks are not just to the entity but also to those with him and perhaps in particular to Masumi and Wei Wuxian. He speaks as one who has seen any number of 'plays', of reality play out time and again.

"One's perception of that reality is should not be invalidated because it does not match the context you know. A play can match reality and reality can be naught but fiction. They need not be mutually exclusive."

Then to the entity, the woman whose body Elidibus possesses nods their head. "Thank you for agreeing. After all, what play can be truly understood by viewing one scene or even one Act?"

Elidibus does not flinch as the... illusion sweeps over. To flinch would be to reject his willingness to submit to his own request. It would also bring danger that he might miss something important.

He is no stranger to the phenomenon of witnessing the past, or even someone's memories, as though experiencing it. It is a part of Elidibus' very nature to be able to do so. Thus he observes, being careful to memories every detail he can meticulously. The strange, the audience, Diagad's purple skies and their beauty. Diagad itself. Is the stage truly a stage? The audience truly an audience? Is the stage the retelling itself as from the perspective of the entity or is it happening on the day tragedy came?

Then of the man they are; who are they? What sense of person can Elidibus find of this person they are and are not?

And the last: keeping track of the three others and himself. Elidibus has taken some responsibility for their present and current situation. He will see them as safely through it as he can.

[Masumi, meanwhile, does flinch, briefly startled at the sudden change of scenery. She recovers quickly though, and takes the chance to glance around the area. At the stage, the audience, the others, the surrounding area. Everything seems normal so far, but given what she'd asked to see, Masumi can't help but feel that this can't last.

So she goes with this, waits to see what will happen next. It would be rude to not go with it, especially after asking to see.]

Wei Wuxian keeps in mind the staging itself, the dimensions of it, and the sting and the pain of his own transformations. Beings formed from pain do not necessarily rise above it, as he knows. There are breaking points.

There are times where everything becomes a jest, and you just one more broken piece of the game board. When everything loved is taken away, and there's nothing you could have done to change it.

The audience is rapt, and he flits his gaze over the scenery, hears words and tilts his head up to look skyward. A beautiful day, indeed. "There was no warning," he says, looking up. "Was there."

There is no answers, vocally, to anything now said. But Wei Wuxian will know his assumption is true. These people are enjoying themselves, even those in other parts of the city; and as if in response to how ignorant the citizens were, the group for a moment are no longer on that stage, but on some place else.

For it's easy to imagine, how utterly oblivious the rest of the world was if you were. These streets so well-known, each of them believe this again to be their home, their everything: the well-dressed and casually so citizens, the people in outfits and with their peculiar biologies; some human, some not, some somewhere in-between. In a park where people are chatting, walking through, someone is playing music and someone other group are putting on a show; in the shopping district, the streets packed and the holo-advertisements above and around them, it's just another day in Jinnjar, so real that it can be touched.

And then: the sky turns dark. Rolling from the glorious purple hues to darkened blues, blacks and greys, like a hand rolling across the sky itself and shifting it to these tones. Shifting shapes, cubes, circular, octagonal, diamond; as they look up at them - not everyone looked up at first; you didn't look up first, you had a show to do - they will be unable to discern what they are, what this mass is.

But it's growing, it's spreading, and finally even you can't ignore how dark the sky has gotten. It's the outdoor performance again. People turning in their seats, eyes going up on the anomaly above. The whispers spread around in the air, in their ears; confusion, apprehension, a growing fear. Claustrophobia begins to overtake you, whether or not you're one to suffer from it, and it spikes as the shapes you still can't make sense of grow in size. Closer, closer, they're overtaking everything, and the screams, they start! You hear sounds that shouldn't be; you feel as your body starts to choke, hears as the people start to scramble, but where to? Everything and nothing fills your ears, your senses, as your body suffocates and you are trapped, you can do nothing to stop what it about to be. Nothing but darkness surrounds you and this hanged point of torture of frozen in a coffin of death is the KINDNESS part of what is to come. You LONG FOR THE DARKNESS TO RETURN, FOR WHEN THE COLOURS DO RETURN

IT IS A MASS. ALL COLOURS, ALL ALL ALL ALL AROUND YOU. IN STREAM THE VOICES, THE SCORES OF LIVES THAT YOUR BRAIN CANNOT COMPREHEND BUT EACH VOICE COMES INTO YOU, A PART OF YOU, YOUR BODY SCREAMING TO EXPLODE AND YES IT IS UNRAVELLING, IT IS FALLING FALLING FALLING. THIS IS THE VOID. IT IS ENDLESS AND IT IS CRUEL AND YOU ARE BEING TORN APART BUT YOU ARE BEING. YOU NEVER HAD TO BREATHE BUT YOU NOW KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE WITHOUT. TOO MUCH TOO LITTLE AND WHY, WHY? THIS IS A PRISON, THIS ENDLESS VOID

AND SO MANY WORLDS, SO MANY UNWORTHY THAT CONTINUE TO EXIST WHILE YOUR DIAGAD WAS TAKEN AND STRIPPED AND YOU WILL CONTINUE TO FALL AND TIME HAS NO MEANING.

And it will last, for what will feel like for too long. But they will be granted a mercy, when everything turns dark; and some may find it too much for their minds. Or, they will manage to open their eyes again, outside of the old congress building. The doors closed, an eerie stillness in the air.

A reflection, a containment. Thoughts brewing, and you know they are, even if Chaos cannot be seen or their thoughts heard.

But the very courtyard oozes with his presence - just as all of this reality does.

Elidibus takes note of the words spoken by the others, but more importantly takes note of them; their aether, their existence. His kind have powers akin to experiencing the past, present or future of others as if the perspective is of another. But they keep some semblance of self.

Those mortals of his own world who inherit a fraction of this ability oft struggle with it for a handful of reasons. But it does not apply to him.

But this does not mean it is effortless to retain his sense of self in the experience Chaos favors them with. Elidibus does so, because of his ability but also because of experience.

Diagad's Final Days is familiar. Not the same, yet... Though Elidibus will not shed tears, there is hidden agony sympathetic to this relived memory. His perspective's own inconsolable terror which he cannot offer succor to. The cries of everyone pouring in. Pain, agony, pleas to be saved from the dissolution, the end!

Elidibus tries to study the nonsensical geometrics above when his perspective is cast upon them. Is it a spell? A device? An entity or entities in their own right? Did they have the colors of chaos? Or... was it something more static?

He cannot change the fate of Diagad's people. Of Chaos' endless torment within the Void that led to the present day. But there are those he can help; ones he has promised to aid and whom might suffer more than he under the burden their host has brought to bear on their minds. Toward the light of life that he had committed to memory. Roland, Masumi, Wei Wuxian. They are, after all, standing together still whatever the illusion says.

A hand will seek to grasp each of the three. On a shoulder, an arm. Not all at once, but still firmly in an effort to penetrate the intensity of the memory and to let them know he is there. Also there is the sound of Elidibus's voice. Distinct and firm, striving to be something familiar to the people around him that can be touched by it.

"Remember, all you witness now is a memory of the past. You can't allow it to overwhelm you. Heed my words and I will guide you through to the end."

Physical touch, the sound of the Ascian's voice firm and strong; the resolve of someone who is used to leading people, of earnestly wanting to lead people through down the road to their salvation.

It may not work. But he can at least make the effort. It will be up to the mortals' own strengths to determine if they can find this anchor in the tumult.

Whether he could weave a spell to make it better is irrelevant, as he has no intention of trying. They all agreed to this experience and they would see it through.

Then, it is over.

Elidibus opens his eyes to the sight of the place they began. His gaze shifts to judge the condition of the three with him before they turn to the doors, their surroundings.

The expression his vessel shows is one of a calm and unaffected individual. This is far from the full truth, but this is neither the time nor place to admit how deeply the incident cut. For the moment, a response to Chaos will have to wait. After weighing conversation with ascertaining the welfare of his companions, Elidibus decides on the latter.

Quietly, he asks of the trio, "Are you capable of moving?" The gentle tone is not meant to be unheard by Chaos. It is calculated to voice concern for his current allies.

Mostly calculated. Even though he sees the three as mortal, Elidibus can't help a small amount of genuine emotion after the experience.

Edited 2021-08-28 02:13 (UTC)

[It's too much for Masumi to take. The pain, the sense of being trapped, the voices, it's all too much for the normal human teen who has never experienced anything even close to this before. Desperate for the others she'd just been with, Masumi instinctively tries to find anyone else, anyone who can make this easier to go through.

Elidibus grabbing her shoulder is a relief in the chaos, as is his voice, and while the memory is still overwhelming, at least now Masumi has something to focus on. And focus she does, trying to heed his words about not letting it get to her with...not really success, but at least she's not completely freaked out anymore?

Either way, when it finally ends and she returns to reality, Masumi finds herself shaking, rattled by the experience of what Chaos had been through. Glancing around at the others, she manages a response to Elidibus, quiet as she processes what just happened.]

...I think so. That was a lot more than I expected.

"I don't know about any of you," Wei Wuxian says, tone dry, lips curling into a lopsided smile that doesn't reach his eyes. "But I, for one, could use a drink about now."

He can move. He'd also love to forget all this, in the sense of moving past it, but given that Chaos is controlling this world, and this is all Chaos has carried with, is sharing?

A being in grief over a world lost so horrifically, and that's a burden they all carry the knowledge of, along with the wildness of Chaos's grief. Yes, he certainly could use a drink after that.

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So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

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so sorry for the wait! [1/2]

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Warning: tiny inferences to FFXIV Shadowbringers spoilers.

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