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{{work}}
Non-character trope listings '''A''' through '''M''' for the first season of ''[[Darker
Tropes that are inherent spoilers should go in the [[Darker
----
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* [[All Asians Know Martial Arts]]: Invoked -- according to Kenji witnessing Hei in action the first time, [[All Chinese Know Kung Fu|all Chinese are]].
* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: At one point, April tells someone to call the organization she works for the "Secret Intelligence Service," not "[[MI 6]]." It sounds made-up, but ''that's the actual name of the organization''.
** Also, November 11's cigarettes. The brand he prefers comes in a black pack with a white skull and the word DEATH on the front. You might think the show's creators are trying to make an [[Anvilicious]] point about smoking<ref>Which, admittedly, they probably are; see [[Writer
* [[Amplifier Artifact]]: Several organizations [[MacGuffin|hunt for the damn thing]], and not just because it's [[Mineral MacGuffin|shiny]].
* [[Anime Chinese Girl]]: Alice, though she gives her qipao to a childhood friend instead of wearing it herself. {{spoiler|She's also completely psycho.}}
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* [[Badass Adorable]]: Amber, [[Deliberately Cute Child]] that she is.
* [[Badass Biker]]: Hitotsubashi apparently was one, Kenji tries to be.
* [[Badass in
* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Hei's default mission garb consists of a long black coat that's only bullet proof when he wears it -- because no one else is badass enough, apparently.
** Thanks to the cold weather, practically everyone who lives in Russia.
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** Though implications at the end of the first season are that the Contractors as a group/race are growing out of their amorality.
* [[Batman Cold Open]]: The series begins with the police chasing a rogue Contractor and Hei showing up [[Stealth Hi Bye|out of nowhere]] to [[Curb Stomp Battle|kick his ass]]. However, unlike most openings like this, it was actually plot-relevant.
* [[Battle in
* [[Beat Still My Heart]]: A contractor with teleportation powers tended to do this.
* [[Beautiful Dreamer]]: Invoked, when Amber deemed the scene of Hei watching his sleeping sister romantic-looking. Then again, for Amber he looks as romantic as possible in any situation.
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* [[Blind Seer]]: Yin, sort of. She was blind as a normal human, but has no trouble seeing as a doll, whether as a result of her powers as a medium or something else.
* [[Blind Without'Em]]: Kirihara
* [[Blessed
** It is the compulsory nature that can make ''any'' obeisance [[Cursed
** Wei may actually be [[Cursed
* [[Blond Guys Are Evil]]: About half of the Contractors are blond.
* [[Bloody Murder]]: Wei's power.
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** Particularly hilarious is Huang's habit of getting pissed off at Hei and picking him up by his shirt. Hei [[The Stoic|never reacts]], but one has to wonder what would happen if someone pointed out to Huang that he's trying to intimidate someone who could kill him if he so much as touched him.
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Maki looks like a [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|white haired]] version of Souseiseki from ''[[Rozen Maiden]]'', Amber looks identical to C.C. of ''[[Code Geass]]'', and the doll from episodes 17 and 18 strongly resembles fellow [[Emotionless Girl]] Eureka from ''[[Eureka Seven]]''. November 11 is very [[James Bond]]-ish, although that might be simply [[National Stereotypes]] of what a British spy is like.
** Also, kind of an odd one overlapping with [[Actor Allusion]]: April has a low level version of Storm's powers in ''[[X
*** For that matter, November 11 is a blond ice-user, making him similar to another X-Men character.
*** Also possible as a white suit wearing cyropath with realistic limitations on his power November 11 might be based on [[Planetary|Elijah Snow]].
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* [[The Charmer]]: November 11, in between being a [[Jerkass]].
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: The first shot of the first episode, before the [[Batman Cold Open]], is {{spoiler|Hei's sister Bai.}} We have no clues explaining this until eleven episodes in.
* [[The Chessmaster]]: Amber,
* [[Chick Magnet]]: Hei's magnetism is so great, even ''[[Emotionless Girl|Emotionless Girls]]'' crush on him.
** And the [[Fair Cop]] trying to catch him.
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* [[Crack Fic]]: A [[Crowning Moment of Funny|glorious]] in-universe example - Mayu's [[Interspecies Romance|human-on-elephant]] [[Slash Fic]]. Which she writes ''Hei'' into.
* [[Creepy Child]]: Of the [[Emotionless Girl]] kind when it comes to dolls. (Provided the dolls are in a young person's body, otherwise the "child" part doesn't really work out.) This is essentially their premise, and dolls have no control over this aspect of the way they act.
** For a straight example, Maki would be the prime source.
* [[Cryonics Failure]]: November 11 does this intentionally.
* [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]: The Friends of the Gate is a bizarre mix of Catholicism and Jehovah's Witnesses, except they worship Hell's Gate. They even have confessionals!
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* [[De-Power]]: Havoc somehow lost her power; it's unknown whether it was a side effect of Heaven Gate's accident, as a result of Gates' chaotic nature, from a strain or whatever. Because she also somehow [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|lost her memory]] in the process -- again, it's unknown whether it was for the same reason or she was mind-wiped.
* [[Disability Superpower]]: Yin was blind when human but her abilities as a Doll basically allow her to walk around without any problem.
* [[Diving Save]]: <s>Subverted</s> <s>Double-subverted</s> [[Playing
** Also dramatically executed by {{spoiler|Yin's mother, in episode 14}}.
* [[Dramatic Chase Opening]]
* [[Driven
* [[Dude, She's Like, in
* [[The Dulcinea Effect]]: Episodes 17/18 revolve partly around this.
* [[Dull Eyes of Unhappiness]]: Hei, perpetually. You can see the pupils of his eyes in maybe three shots in the entire series, one of which is due to weird lighting, and even then light never reflects off them.
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* [[Elemental Baggage]]: Averted with November 11. He's not much use if he can't get close enough to touch someone and there's no liquid around. However, he's very resourceful about getting around it, and his partnership with April helps a lot as well.
* [[Emotionless Girl]]: All Dolls are like this.
* [[Empty Eyes]]: All Dolls are like this too.
* [[Empty Piles of Clothing]]: The only thing left behind after a certain Contractor teleports herself or others.
* [[Empty Shell]]: Dolls effectively have to be programmed to perform functions as basic as sleeping or dressing themselves.
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** {{spoiler|Hitotsubashi}} transported {{spoiler|Kenji's [[No Name Given]] girl}} sitting in a car next to him. She sat quietly, saw where they are moving... and immediately communicated this to another party using her observer apparition. It didn't even occur to him he creates a security hole the size of a whole Titanic. It's just a Doll!
** In ''Shikkoku no Hana'' Meena Khandar Swami heard Yin dropping a phrase that in normal circumstances would be an expected common courtesy. Cue a [[Beat Panel|speechless]], shaken, "maybe I'm still [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|at the Gate]] and hallucinating?" face, then stuttering out that it's the first time she saw even this much of free will from a Doll. Mina was a scientist in PANDORA whom her chief considers more brilliant than himself, so... yes, it's ''that'' bad.
* [[Engrish]]: In episode 15, when Hei meets Huang to get a mission briefing, Huang hands him a short dossier on April {{spoiler|who had been involved in what looks like a car bombing, but was really Maki's doing.}} The writing is in English--rather, it would be, if not for the fact that April apparently has a 'Cordname' and she's from 'rondon.' And 'obeisance' was mistranslated as 'value.'
** Also the Evening Primrose's ultimatum- "Acknowledge existence of we contractor", indeed.
* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Hei and, to a much lesser degree, November 11.
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* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: Not really ''evil'' per se, but Hei's voice drops quite a bit when he switches out of his [[Obfuscating Stupidity|Li act]].
** In the [[Psycho for Hire|actually evil]] department, we have Wei's very deep voice in the dub.
* [[Explaining Your Power to
** But then, he was a [[Blood Knight]] ([[Incredibly Lame Pun|sorry]]) [[Psycho for Hire]] who was absolutely convinced of his own invincibility and probably thought it wasn't any fun unless he could play with his opponent first. [[Underestimating Badassery|Which turned out to be a bad idea]].
* [[Expospeak]]: A good part of Episodes 1 and 2. [[Unreliable Expositor|Should be taken with a grain of salt, though.]]
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* [[Gilligan Cut]]: Variation: when Saito is telling Kirihara that they're keeping watch on the MI6 agents in a hotel, November 11 comes up and interrupts him. Then Kirihara gets a call from Kano informing her that they lost track of them. [[Captain Obvious|No kidding?]]
** And towards the end of the first season, when {{spoiler|Mao, narrating, says that anyone could see it's much smarter to abandon him in Amber's headquarters than to try to rescue him.}} Cut to Hei {{spoiler|breaking in to rescue him.}} Though it wasn't quite as dumb as it seemed; {{spoiler|he knew Amber had given orders that no one was allowed to kill him.}}
* [[Girl in
* [[Glamour Failure]]: Namely, [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]].
* [[The Glasses Gotta Go]]: In more [[Fan Service|fanservicey]] scenes with Kirihara. She looks good in any suit, but let's face it -- in uniform and glasses she resembles a hungry female mantis a bit too much. Subverted in that she spends most of her glasses-free time squinting like crazy because, like most glasses-wearers outside of fiction, she actually ''[[Blind Without'Em|needs]]'' them.
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** One particular user has the ability to envelop a [[Sphere of Destruction|spherical area]] and condense everything inside it into a softball sized ball of dense matter.
* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: From the first episode to the last, thanks to [[Punch Clock Villain|punchclock villainy]].
* [[Grievous Bottley Harm]]: November 11 does a variation on this. When cornered {{spoiler|by Syndicate agents employed by his boss}}, he picks up a bottle of an alcoholic beverage and freezes it. When the aftermath of the fight is shown, there is a room full of corpses [[Impaled
** Someone also tried it on Hei (as Li) when he was infiltrating a [[Yakuza]]-owned restaurant. It... [[Cover-Blowing Superpower|didn't really work]]. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Like, at all]].
* [[Guns Are Worthless]]: Played straight for most of the season, and even gets directly invoked, then gets brutally subverted during last few episodes, starting with {{spoiler|November 11's death}}.
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** Unless freezing their shoes to the ground counts. Maki established that this did not directly damage them.
* [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]]: The smarter Contractors tend to figure this out. For instance, November manages to use "[[An Ice Person|freeze stuff]]" to immobilize people, make ranged weapons, shield himself, kill from a distance, or for a [[Touch of Death]] over the course of the series, with no [[Elemental Baggage]] involved, and the second season showed that April's fairly lame "make it rain" power [[Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress|can be plenty dangerous all by itself]].
* [[Hero
** In the police's defense, Hei isn't exactly the most upstanding citizen. At his most heroic he's committing murder, breaking into maximum-security areas, and blowing up the American embassy.
* [[Ho Yay]]: Episodes 11 and 12. Hei and Nick became close ''very'' quickly, spent a whole night watching the stars together (and made plans to go watch them again afterward), and Hei {{spoiler|looked really sad and heartbroken after Nick "betrayed" him.}}
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* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: Where does Hei keep all those knives, anyway? He also somehow fits his [[Badass Longcoat]] into his pocket.
* [[An Ice Person]]: November 11 is a more lethal version, and his powers are complemented by April, who [[Making a Splash|can create mini-hurricanes leading to rain]].
* [[Iconic Item]]: Hei's mask, coat, and knives.
* [[Immune to Bullets]]: Explained in the 2nd episode, Hei's [[Badass Longcoat]] is quite handy.
* [[Impaled
* [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]]: ''Lots''. Mostly of a [[Black Box]] nature.
** Luke managed to shatter an incoming knife-and-cable, but at least he swept it with a [[Razor Floss|force whip]].
* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Committed by Kurosawa, in [[Gratuitous English]], no less. Quoth Kiko, "That wasn't even funny."
* [[Inelegant Blubbering]]: {{spoiler|Kid!Hei in the Instrumentality-esque [[Gainax Ending]].}}
* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]: Kenji may be a Yakuza member, but his attempts to be badass lead to him getting beaten up or forced to fix the door he kicked down. Oh, and he gets picked for a mission specifically because the boss thinks he doesn't have the brains or guts to screw it up.
* [[Innocent Fanservice Girl]]: The sexy secretary contractor referenced below has the power to teleport (clothing not included) and walks around naked without any suggestion of shame. November 11 acts in the same way when she phases him out of his clothing (although another male contractor is weirded out by her behavior and tells her to [[Please Put Some Clothes On]]). In both cases, this is less innocence than [[Tin Man|just not caring]].
** Dolls should also count. Many of them have been naked in public, and they certainly don't mind it, all of them being [[Emotionless Girl|emotionless people]] by definition. Though [[Your Mileage May Vary|it may be more]] [[Fan Disservice]] in practice...
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* [[Ironic Echo]]: November 11 seems to be on the receiving end of this a lot. For instance, his "Smoking kills" speech gets parroted back at him {{spoiler|when he's tied up and needs a cigarette for his remuneration}}, his "[[I Was Just Joking]]" non-jokes are made right back at him, and {{spoiler|Hei, completely on accident, repeated his last advice to Kirihara to her almost word-for-word.}}
** Also common with [[Bond One-Liner|Bond One Liners]]. For instance, November 11's "I knew we'd work well together" echoes what his victim said to him at the beginning of their meeting and was immediately followed by him freezing the guy to death. And when Hei fought Wei, Wei's response to the [[Single-Stroke Battle]] was, "Looks like I'm faster than you." Guess what Hei said after proving him wrong? <ref>There is one important difference there; Wei used ''[[Japanese Pronouns|watashi]]'' while Hei used ''[[Japanese Pronouns|ore]]''.</ref>
** November 11 has an EPR agent telling him what he told to Hei before. He laughed and reminisced Hei's [[Talk to
* [[It's Personal]]: Wei bears a grudge against Hei for defeating him in a fight; on the more heroic side, November 11 and July act contrary to their supposedly emotionless personalities and seek revenge on Maki for [[Nakama|injuring April]].
** Hei's grudge against Amber is also personal, {{spoiler|if rather misplaced.}}
* [[It Was
* [[I Was Just Joking]]: [[Running Gag|November 11, worst comedian ever.]]
* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]: One of the first scenes. Also, when Hei encounters Havoc (and assumes her to be just as monstrous as she was previously), he slaps her and then [[Fingore|breaks her fingers]] to elicit information on his sister. He does feel remorseful when he realizes that she is no longer a monster, but it's still pretty disturbing behavior on his part.
* [[Janitor Impersonation Infiltration]]: The reason for some of Hei's jobs.
* [[Jerk Justifications]]: Usually along the lines of: "How could you murder in cold blood, [[You Monster!|you monster]]?!" "I'm a contractor."
* [[Jerk
* [[Knife Nut]]: Hei
* [[Knocking
* [[Kuudere]]: Hei may be a [[Stoic]] [[Badass Longcoat]] who acts like a [[Jerkass]] sometimes, but he's actually [[Not So Stoic|a lot more fragile]] than he lets on, and if you mess with his [[Nakama]], you're ''dead''. Misaki Kirihara generally prefers to act distant and professional, but she's cheerful and even makes jokes when she relaxes a bit. Yin might qualify as well, as the resident not-so-emotionless [[Emotionless Girl]].
* [[Lack of Empathy]]: Combined with [[Tin Man]], this pretty much sums up the contractor mindset.
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* [[Lightning Gun]]: Notably averted; this is one of the rare cases where a [[Shock and Awe]] character can't throw lightning bolts and usually follows electricity physics, needing direct contact or conductive material like metal and water.
* [[Likes Older Women]]: Referenced:
{{quote|
'''Kirihara''': ''Middle-aged?'' }}
* [[Look Behind You!]]: "The stars are pretty." "What? It's overcast." * [[Stealth Hi Bye|has vanished]]*
* [[Loony Fan]]: Also a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]. If you want to know [[Brain Bleach|how it feels when yer brain implodes]], imagine the "[[Crack Pairing|pairing]]" of the all-stealthy ''Black [[Shinigami|Angel of Death]]'' and loudmouthed ''Kiko''. And she ''tried''. [[Stalker
* [[Loose Canon]]: The OVA happens somewhere in the middle of the first season, but thanks to the [[Reset Button]], could fit in just about anywhere and doesn't really affect the plot.
* [[Lovable Traitor]]: Technically, in his infiltrations Hei worked against Yakuza, PANDORA and (secondary to the target, but still) police. Now look at his interaction with Kenji, Nick and Kirihara in his undercover identity. He didn't even play with them, he's really like that. Much the same for Chiaki{{spoiler|'s doll replacement}}.
** Lampshaded in an [[Omake]] to the first manga, where the heroine, who's mostly interacted with his "real" personality, sees him switch over to "Li" and start cheerfully chatting with Saitou, with great big labels on the scene reading "Police" and "Culprit."
* [[MacGuffin]]: A number of Hei's missions involve him stealing crystals or other things which came from the gate and not only is that goal not revealed until he completes it, the significance of the products isn't either.
* [[Mafia Princess]]: A psychotic one who was the childhood friend of Kirihara and tries to kill her with the help of Wei, her [[
* [[Magic
* [[Magic Prerequisite]]: The basis of a Contractor's powers.
* [[Major Injury Underreaction]]: It's never directly stated, but there is arguably an implication that Contractors are fairly resistant to injury. Wei is always cutting himself and is never weakened by blood loss; November 11 pulls Hei's dagger out of his arm, and despite needing a bandage, doesn't have any permanent damage; April is caught in an explosion, and while covered in bandages afterward has no injuries or scars in her next appearance; Hei suffers some pretty serious damage in the course of the series, even having his heart stopped at least once, but is able to shrug it off and keep fighting.
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* [[Masquerade]]: Very few people know the truth about the Contractors, and one organization's goal is to reveal their existence to the public. {{spoiler|It works.}}
* [[Mass Super-Empowering Event]]: The appearance of the Gates.
* [[Meaningful Echo]]: "I guess you can't help who you fall in love with," was touching enough when Kenji said it, but coming from {{spoiler|grumpy [[Fantastic Racism|Huang]] about a Contractor he was supposed to kill}} it's even more powerful.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: The writers really did a number on this one. Hei, of course, has [[Shock and Awe|electric-based abilities]], which he acquired as a result of whatever transpired in South America when he was with Amber. The word "electric" is derived from a Latin term which roughly translates to "produce from amber by friction," as it was believed then that lightning was a product of amber. In reality amber is a conductor of static electricity, so it's only fitting that Amber [[Incredibly Lame Pun|rubs Hei the wrong way]], inevitably resulting in [[Hurricane of Puns|sparks flying.]] ''In addition'' to that, amber is fossilized resin, something kept in its natural state by time, which fits perfectly with Amber's ability.
** Also, the various [[Code Name|Code Names]] used by members of [[The Syndicate]] are words for [[Colorful Theme Naming|colors]] in foreign languages, mostly Chinese and English, and a lot of them are clearly based on the person's appearance. Besides Amber and her [[Eyes of Gold]], there's Hei ("black" in Chinese, and black-haired, [[Black Eyes|black-eyed]], and prone to wearing black), Yin ("silver" in Chinese and a [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]]), and red-headed Havoc's Syndicate codename "Carmine." Bai ("white") is probably meant to contrast with her brother. Oh, and [[Punny Name|"Mao" means "cat."]]
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* [[Merlin Sickness]]: {{spoiler|Amber}}'s remuneration is growing younger.
* [[Mind Control Eyes]]: Dolls have these.
* [[The Mind Is a Plaything of
* [[Mind Rape]]: Hell's Gate can cause hallucinations, and it seems to go out of its way to dredge up Hei's [[Dead Little Sister|lingering]] [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|insecurities]]. This leaves our [[Stoic]] [[Badass]] staring off into space with a tortured and/or ''terrified'' expression on his face three or four times in the two episodes he spends in a research facility there.
** Dolls have basically been [[Mind Rape|mind raped]] into nearly [[Empty Shell|Empty Shells]] by the Gate.
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* [[Mineral MacGuffin]]: The Meteor Fragment.
* [[Miniature Senior Citizens]]: Hei's landlady and the [[Mad Scientist]] from the later episodes.
* [[Mismatched Eyes]]: Maki, in a [[Shout-Out]] to Souseiseki of ''[[
* [[Mission Control]]: Huang and Yin
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Often present, as an arc will start off with some humor, but become grim by the end.
** Alternately, whenever something [[Tear Jerker]]-y or violent has just happened at the end of the episode... [[Soundtrack Dissonance|and then the calm, peaceful first ending theme]] cuts in with a picture of a waving field of flowers. After some of the arcs, you start to wonder if it's actually a minefield.
* [[Mook Horror Show]]: Considering the [[Cat Scare|cat scares]] and Hei's [[Stealth Hi Bye]] abilities bordering on [[Offscreen Teleportation]] (Not to mention his [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|rather brutal information-gathering tactics]]), one could be forgiven for thinking he was the villain up until [[First Episode Spoiler|the end of the second episode]].
* [[Morality Pet]]: Never, ''ever'' mess with Yin. The blind, [[Moe]] [[Emotionless Girl]] comes with a very protective [[Badass Abnormal]] ninja who will want to have a word with you if you so much as touch her. Overlaps with [[Morality Chain]] as well.
* [[Motherly Scientist]]: Kanami cared a lot about [[media:DtB13_Kanami_and_Dolls_336x178_4178.png|catatonic Dolls]] [[People Jars|in jars]] in her observatory and learned their individual quirks, which became evident when CY-463 trapped them. They are more ''tools'' than ''subjects'', but it's not like she could do for them any more even if she had any real power.
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* [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]]: Contractors are said to be cold-hearted, rational killers who don't dream, by characters who find them aberrant/abhorrent for these qualities. But there's always at least one who behaves in contradiction to these traits, and then there are normal humans who demonstrate their capacity for them.
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:<small>Back to ''[[{{ROOTPAGENAME}}]]''</small>
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