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explaining-homestuck · 23 days

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What did Gamzee do after the events of the meteor pre and post retcon? The wiki page just made me more confused.

Ooh, here's an interesting one.

One thing to keep in mind is that while a lot of earlier acts made a point of showing exactly what happened to cause things to occur, characters to be in certain places and have certain things happen to them, Act 6 (and more specifically, Act 6 Act 6) tend to throw that out of the window. This is a choice made for a number of reasons: for one, showing every single thing that happens to each character would take forever, especially for two or more timelines worth. Also, narrative obfuscation is a theme of Homestuck, especially A6A6, where Caliborn spills stardust all over the game cartridge, causing glitches to obscure certain events, both for the audience and the characters.

The question given here is "what happens to Gamzee Makara after the meteor trip", so I won't go into much detail about what he specifically does while on the meteor, or in the dream bubbles (though to simplify: he hides in vents for 3 years, plots with Kurloz to help Lord English, romances and abuses Terezi, and ignores Karkat; in the post-retcon timeline Vriska puts a stop to most of this).

However, story-wise, while this is going on, Gamzee appears a couple of times in Jane's session, providing her and her friends with guides (prototyping dead trolls) and taking part in trickster shenanigans. And, he's also seen in Caliborn's session, helping him! What's going on here!?

Let's start with the pre-retcon timeline, in Jane's session. When the meteor arrives, Grimdark Jade arrives and teleports all its passengers (except Gamzee) to LoMaX, where they encounter John.

Gamzee does several things in the Alpha session, which may be impossible to actually order correctly due to the time travel involved, so let's give them in the order they're shown.

Appearance One

First, we see Gamzee, a short while after Jane Crocker entered the Medium (when she returned back to her house at the end of Myststuck), with Aradia Megido's Time Travel Music Boxes (her version of Dave's Time Tables) which allow him to travel through time to any point in the session he's in. He likely retrieved them from somewhere in the meteor, or from a dream bubble. They may also be Damara Megido's, it's impossible to tell.

He's also wearing a fake God Tier outfit, which was made for him by Kurloz Makara in a dream bubble. Furthermore, he has a large variety of bottled potions, which are made from the blood of the seven trolls who died on the meteor (Vriska, Tavros, Equius, Nepeta, Feferi, Sollux, and Eridan); he tries to sell these potions to Jane.

He also has with him a fridge, which contains Vriska Serket and Tavros Nitram's bodies, including Tavros's non-robot legs, which he then prototypes into Jane's Kernelsprite to form Tavrisprite, who proptly spritesplodes, launching Gamzee away from Jane's house.

Appearances Two and Three

According to Roxy Lalonde, Gamzee similarly appeared to create Fefetasprite with her Kernelsprite and Feferi Peixes and Nepeta Leijon's bodies immediately after she arrived back at her house in the Medium post-entry, and can be surmised to have done the same for Jake English's Kernelsprite, making Erisolsprite with Eridan Ampora and Sollux Captor. (Jake also implies this.)

Not much else is known about these appearances.

Appearance Four

While Dirk Strider is having a rather dramatic conversation with Lil Hal about whether or not he's going to prototype him, Gamzee sneaks up behind him and prototypes Equius's body into the Kernelsprite, forming Equiusprite. Hal is then subsequently prototyped, forming ARquiusprite. Gamzee also does a silly honk dance while this is happening, followed by tearing up and prostrating himself before Dirk in reverence of ARquius's majesty.

Gamzee is also present when Dirk joins the Tricksters, the Fefetasplosion, and the Trickster Alchemy Montage. The less said about all that the better.

Appearance Five

At some unknown time, Gamzee was on Derse with the Courtyard Droll, and with him, placed Lil Cal (the green suit one, which Gamzee had in his possession since Murderstuck), as well as a large assortment of knives, a hacksaw, Crowbar's Crowbar (which he received from Kurloz) and a card saying "YOU'RE MOTHER FUCKIN WELCOME" with a picture of Gamzee's face on it, into a pumpkin marked with the words "LET'S PLAY A GAME", which they then transportalized into Jack Noir's Prospit cell. Jack then was cursed by Cal, and proceeded to become Lord Jack, who then destroyed Prospit's moon and a large amount if the main planet itself.

(Technically, Appearance Five is shown before the second half of Appearance Four, but since that takes place in the same location, I grouped it together.)

Appearance Six

Once Jade Harley and John Egbert's battleship arrives in the Alpha Session, Gamzee sneaks aboard the ship after Jade, John, and Davesprite have all left (John by retcon) and steals the Ring of Life John accidentally left on the couch he was sleeping on. He then hides in the fridge, and in his dreams, gives the ring to Aranea Serket, who is revealed to be currently (and possibly previously) manipulating his mind. Aranea uses the Ring to return to life, and appears in the Alpha Session.

It's implied within this section that Gamzee's silence during his actions in the previous parts of Act 6 was due to Aranea's control over him. However, this cannot be proven for sure, although I'll mention it again later.

Appearance Seven

During the chaos on the Land of Frost and Frogs, which would later become the event known as GAME OVER, Gamzee jumps from somewhere under Aranea's control in order to prevent Crocker-Tier Jane from using her Life powers to resurrect the recently killed Grimbark Jade. He grapples and gropes her, until Terezi Pyrope appears, kicking him off of her and engaging in combat with him. She stabs him multiple times, but due to Aranea's influence, he doesn't fight back, and he survives because of his clown immortality.

When Brain Ghost Dirk breaks Aranea's concentration fully (when she's flung back after his re-fakening), Gamzee snaps out of her control reverting to his original StOnEd QuIrK. He asks Terezi to stop, telling her she's hurting him, which causes her to drop her weapons in shock, but he then flies into a clown rage, beating her mercilessly, then hanging her over the lava. Rose attempts to intervene, but Gamzee dodges her spell, then taunts Karkat and Kanaya (who are at the edge of the lava lake) while putting Terezi in a headlock.

[If you want images of this fight, go to the actual comic, please.]

Appearance Eight: GAME OVER

Immediately following Appearance Seven, Gamzee is attacked by Karkat and Kanaya. Using Terezi's canesword, he stabs Karkat twice and throws him into the lava, before Kanaya cuts him in half lengthways with her chainsaw.

This is all of Gamzee's appearances in the Alpha Kids session pre-Retcon. While Hussie has said that Gamzee cannot be killed in any timelines he knows of, bisected Gamzee is very clearly out of the picture for other appearances.

Additional Notes

Because Gamzee had access to time-travel, it's near impossible to position these events in a particular order from his point of view, except that all of them must take place for him after arriving in the Alpha Kids session (otherwise Dave would have been able to similarly skip forward and enter the session without taking the 3 year trip), and appearances 7 and 8 must take place sequentially and last.

The ordering of the first 3 appearances is trivial, as it's likely he didn't time travel at all between 1 and 2-3, just went to the planets to do the prototyping when they appeared.

Aranea may also have been controlling Gamzee through all of his earlier appearances. There's evidence to suggest that she is the narrator for the segment where he tries to sell Jane potions, and that she engineered Tavris's creation in order to pacify Vriska with Tavros's traits, making her less likely to interrupt her plans and also to distract Meenah, but that's dipping into the lines of theory more than facts.

ARquius's creation, and sending Cal to Jack, are likely more motivated by aiding Lord English, whether Gamzee understands why he did them or not.

There'll be another post sometimes soon talking more about Gamzee's motivation, including what cause him to go crazy in Murderstuck, but that's all of this for now.

Except, of course, the other timelines.

Post-Retcon

John's Retcon journey ensured that Terezi would not fall for Gamzee's Murderstuck tricks, and led to her capturing him in the basement shop area. John also prevented her from killing Vriska.

During the meteor trip, Vriska stops Gamzee from doing much of his mischief, preventing his and Terezi's relationship, stopping him from stealing all the bodies, which he complained to Kurloz about in the dream bubbles.

Vriska, using the Music Boxes, also did most of Gamzee's interventions in the Alpha Session, prototyping Jane's Kernelsprite with exclusively Tavros, and Dirk's with ARquius again, in order to help deal with God Cat and de-Crocker Tiering Jane respectively. She left Roxy and Jake's sprites open, which later became Jasprosesprite^2 and Davepetasprite^2, which was not her intention.

(There is a slight inconsistency here, as somebody has to have provided Jack Noir with Cal in order for him to become Lord Jack, and make Jane and Jake become God Tier. Nobody knows how this happens in the post-Retcon timeline, though Vriska creating overpowered Jacks in order to have them later be defeated is a recurring theme with her; all 3 Noirs that took part in [S] Collide have her to blame for their presence in one way or another, if she is the creator of Lord Jack. However, this is once again theory, not facts.)

Upon the arrival of the meteor crew in the session, or perhaps some time before or after, Gamzee was locked in Jane Crocker's fridge by Vriska.

In this fridge he remained for the rest of the comic. It was briefly transported to LoMaX by Jasprose to use as a table for her, Nepetasprite and Jake's tea party, and then once she joined Jane on LoCaH to aid with the coming battle, it was used by ARquius as a weapon against Cans, with Gamzee still inside. When Cans and ARquius began travelling between different moments and locations in the battle, the fridge went with them, eventually ending up on LoTaK, where Dave, Dirk, and Terezi were fighting Lord Jack and Spades Slick.

Gamzee was shown inside the fridge and one point, crying.

Most of LoTaK was subsequently destroyed by Lord Jack's head exploding into a black hole. Terezi, Dave, and Dirk all got clear of the blast via time travel, but Gamzee's fate was unknown.

However, this isn't the end of Gamzee's story after the Meteor.

Caliborn

A Gamzee, wearing a fake God Tier outfit, discovered Calliope and Caliborn's egg on Future Earth C, in Universe C (thousands of years after the events of the Homestuck Epilogues, with Earth's new sun expanded to a red giant reminiscent of Alternia's sun).

How this Gamzee got here is unknown. However, he raised the baby Cherubs the best he could, favouring Calliope to Caliborn (possibly because Caliborn bit him)

Gamzee set their room in the wreckage of the meteor up, providing them with meat, candy, special stardust, computers, their Jujus, the chessboard from the Cherubs famous game, and various other items. Where he got these is unknown, but one of them is Rose Lalonde's book that she and Kanaya Maryam wrote, on the workings of Sburb and the events of their sessions (with additional artwork by Dave Strider and Karkat Vantas). However, he edited it, mostly using Equius's blood, removing references to Lord English, Doc Scratch and himself. He also gave Calliope Karkat's ~ATH book (although neither the version from the Alpha Timeline, as that was destroyed in Karkat's computer explosion, nor the one from the timeline an Aradiabot brought the HoNkhOnK code back from, as that one was covered in blood, and also was already used by Doc Scratch, and once Andrew Hussie, as a scrapbook.)

He also set up Calliope and Caliborn's chains, and then left them alone until Caliborn entered the Medium, taking the Earth with him. At this point, Gamzee appeared to him again, offering to be his guide.

Caliborn shot him a bunch instead.

Gamzee followed him anyway, giving him the Crowbar and a set of keys. This may imply that this is the same Gamzee from [S] Collide, since the Crowbar was wielded by Lord Jack during the battle. The fact that Caliborn's Denizen was Yaldaboath, who was also Dirk's Denizen, and resided at the core of LoTaK, which was also consumed by the black hole, and that Caliborn *also* entered his Medium via a black hole, lend evidence to the theory that Lord Jack's head acted as a portal to Caliborn's session (which may also be an explanation for how ARquius arrived for Caliborn's Masterpiece, though it's one of many possibilities.)

Gamzee may also have got to Earth simply escaping the fridge after LoTaK's destruction, going through the Victory Door, and then waiting for thousands of years, as he might not age along with his clown immortality. He may also have entered the universe via the door at a later time, since there's nothing that confirms you must arrive at a specific time or place.

Hussie says:

I'm not even really sure how he got here, to be honest. Maybe he stowed away in a shitty Liberty? Or maybe he was just hiding in one of the ventshafts on your meteor when you entered? He had YEARS of practice to master that move, now that I think about it.

Anyway, Gamzee then assisted Caliborn in his quest, where they also found Lil Seb and Lil Cal, and the 14 regular members of the Felt. Later, in Caliborn's Masterpiece, they encountered the 8 kids, and in the ensuing battle Gamzee was once again bisected lengthways (likely by Dirk), and half of his body was sucked into Lil Cal, then banished into the void to eventually become part of Lord English.

And that's everything that Gamzee did after the meteor.

I hope this confused you slightly less than the wiki! I'm going to be doing a follow-up explanation on Gamzee's motivation and the factors which changed him from silly clown boy into homicidal maniac cultist (and why that's not actually what happened), as requested by someone else, but that's not going to be the next post, so please, ask me more things! I've done two rather long explanations now, so a short one or two might be good, but feel free to ask anything!

(Oh, and I forwent the Epilogues here, because they're kind of a mess, but I can tell you with 99% certainty that the Gamzee that meets Caliborn is *not* the Gamzee from most of the Epilogues; Vriska kills that one.)

#explaining homestuck #homestuck #homestuck lore #gamzee makara #cw: abuse #cw: blood #cw: gore

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explaining-homestuck · 25 days

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can you please explain quadrents (specifically moirailegince? i see alot of people dont seem to get it and id love to have a post to link back to when i explain it instead of having to go through homestuck)

Ah, tackling the big one first.

Homestuck itself has its own explanation of quadrants, which starts on Page 2392. However, I'll take a stab at simplifying the explanation here, although I may take direct quotes from the comic.

Humans have only one form of romance. And though we consider it a complicated subject, [...] it is ultimately a superficial slice of what trolls consider the full body of romantic experience. Our concept of romance [...] is still just [...] a single, linear concept.

(I guess I will be taking direct quotes from the comics.)

This concept of human love is generally represented with the symbol <3, or ❤️. However, trolls, in keeping with the Midnight Crew's full set of playing card theming, have four different types of romance, to fit the four suits.

<3/♥️, Hearts; <3</♠️, Spades; c3</♣️, Clubs; and <>/♦️, Diamonds.

This creates 4 Quadrants of romance, a term that is often used to refer to love and romantic entanglement.

Here, Nepeta's helpful diagram shows how these quadrants are related.

Hearts, the Flushed Quadrant, and Diamonds, the Pale Quadrant, are grouped as "Red Romance". These are the quadrants more associated with what we would possibly call positive feelings.

Meanwhile, Spades the Caliginous Quadrant (often called "Pitch"), and Clubs, the Ashen quadrant, are grouped as "Black Romance", more associated with negative feelings (to a degree, the divide isn't as simple as that.)

Furthermore, Hearts and Spades are Concupiscent Quadrants, and Diamonds and Clubs are Conciliatory Quadrants. These terms relate to the purpose of these quadrants within troll society: Concupiscent (which has meanings of sexual desire) Quadrants are related directly to the reproductive cycle of the troll species. Meanwhile, Conciliatory (meaning to placate of pacify) Quadrants, quote:

"would be more closely likened to platonic relationships by human standards"

Note: this does not make them necessarily platonic relationships in troll society. Pale and Ashen relationships remain romantic, and there may possibly also be sexual elements (not that these are shown or implied in the comic, nor will they be theorised upon here).

The comic makes it clear that while many parallels can be drawn between troll romance and certain human relationships (for example, "frenemies" or "QPRs"), these relationships are different from troll ones, as trolls are driven by primal forces to engage in their 4 types of romance, in the same way we do with our one (This is, of course, a gross oversimplification of the vast spectrum of the human experience of attraction and possible lack thereof, but it's a fair rough analogy.)

Let us now move on to the first and easiest to understand quadrant:

♥️: The Flushed Quadrant

The Flushed Quadrant is (almost) exactly the same as human romantic and/or sexual attraction. For our purposes, ♥️=❤️.

While the trolls have no concept of marriage, and don't generally use the terms boyfriend/girlfriend, the term for a partner in the Flushed Quadrant is a Matesprit, meaning the two trolls have formed a Matespritship.

The given example within Homestuck canon at the time of a Matespritship was Dad Egbert and Mom Lalonde. Several other well known examples are Rose Lalonde and Kanaya Maryam, Latula Pyrope and Mituna Captor, and Jade Harley and Davesprite (during the Yellow Yard trip, before John's 15th birthday). Many others exist, as well as flushed crushes (Kanaya Maryam for Vriska Serket, Nepeta Leijon for Karkat Vantas, etc.)

Note: Humans can take part in Quadrant relationships outside of the Flushed Quadrant, though some trolls thought this impossible.

Next, we explain

♠️: The Pitch (Caliginous) Quadrant

The simplest explanation of Pitch is always "romance, but with hate instead of love". People often find that hard to understand, but it's a trope that appears throughout media. One of the best examples I've found is LEGO Batman and LEGO Joker in the LEGO Batman Movie.

However, it's much more than simply "hate love". A Kisemesistude is more akin to a fierce arch-rivalry, with a troll competing against their Kismesis to outfox, outsmart, or simply defeat them.

The given example for a Kismesistude is Jack Noir and the Black Queen. Another example is Vriska Serket and Eridan Ampora's black romance, which fell apart before they started the game, Marquise Spinerette Mindfang and Orphaner Dualscar's Kismesistude, which they were mimicking, or Terezi Pyrope and Gamzee Makara's relationship in the pre-retcon timeline.

Note: no successful Kismesistudes exist within the main body of Homestuck: Vriska broke things off with Eridan and likewise Mindfang with Dualscar, and Gamzee was physically and mentally abusing Terezi. All canon kismesistudes have either not budded, or ended with one of the two Kismesis dumping the other, or attempting to kill them. (John and Terezi doesn't count in this case, as its continuation only exists in the Epilogues, a dubiously canon source.) This does not, however, mean all Kismesistudes are doomed to fail.

There are also numerous Pitch crushes, such as Eridan Ampora on Rose Lalonde, Gamzee Makara on Dave Strider (or possibly the Insane Clown Posse, it's unclear) and the aforementioned John Egbert for Terezi Pyrope and vice versa.

Now, it wouldn't be a Homestuck post without an Intermission (possibly the first of several!)

🪣: The Bucket Intermission

I'll keep this short.

Flushed and Pitch pairings can, through undescribed processes, produce a combination of genetic material, which is then collected in a Filial Pail (bucket) by Imperial Drones to be fed to the Mother Grub, who then makes all the baby trolls from the gametes, probably.

Hussie also wrote a short paragraph about dominant and recessive genes which makes me think they know less about dominant and recessive genes than the writers of Metal Gear Solid, but that's not that important right now.

If a troll is unable to provide suitable generic materials, they will be culled by the drone, meaning finding concupiscent quadrantmates is a key goal for a troll's survival.

Anyway, back to romance, with

♣️: The Ashen Quadrant

The clubs symbol notably has 3 circles, which relates to the way this relationship (the most misunderstood one, in my experience) works.

Clubs relationships, or Auspisticisms, are formed when a third troll sees a pair involved in a feud, and decides to step in to mediate, becoming their Auspistice. The purpose of an Auspistice is not the mediate and grow a Pitch relationship, as it's often portrayed, but in fact prevent it from developing.

This is because trolls often feud with each other, causing possible Kismesistudes, but (conventionally) troll romance is monogamous in-quadrant, and having two or more Kismesis would be considered infidelity in conventional troll society, as well as that too many Kismesistudes can increase danger in troll society, and mis-matched rivalries can cause trolls to be stuck in relationships they do not like.

An Auspisticism is often defined by the attraction specifically of the Auspistice *toward* the rival pair, and their wish to mediate them. This is known as an Ashen Crush, much like above Pitch and Flushed Crushes.

Examples of known Auspisticisms within canon Homestuck are Kanaya Maryam between Vriska Serket and Tavros Nitram, Doc Scratch between Spades Slick and Snowman (though Scratch's intervention was more driven by accomplishing his own goal of having Slick kill Snowman), and Jade Harley between Bec Noir and the Peregrine Mendicant in [S] Collide, though this ended in failure.

Next, let's move onto

♥️🔁♠️: Quadrant Vacillation

Another known occurrence within troll society and its romantic framework is the Vacillation of two trolls between multiple quadrants. While canon only gives examples of Flushed/Pitch Vacillation, it's stated that this is but the most common type of Vacillation.

This occurs because troll relationships are incredibly malleable. To quote from the comic again:

In many cases, one party will have red feelings while the other has black. But it will often be the case that one party's feelings will swap to match the other's, since there is no quadrant which naturally accommodates such a disparity. But thereafter, it's not uncommon for the two to toggle between red and black in unison now and then. These scenarios naturally result in both red and black infidelities.

This is stated to be a key reason for the existence of the Ashen and Pale quadrants, to prevent such infidelities. Auspistices are intended to be able to stabilise these turbulent relationships, but failure to uphold this role can lead to more instability and chaos within the mixed relationship.

Equius Zahhak and Aradiabot are shown as the key example of Vacillation, caused by Aradia's distain of the former for his rudeness and the fact he planted a chip inside her robot body that would make her love him, and Equius's attraction to the latter paired with his somewhat fetishisation of the caste system (a story for another time). Vriska Serket and Tavros Nitram's relationship is also mentioned, with Vriska's continued mimicking of Mindfang pushing her to meld Tavros into a fitting Matesprit, while at the same time expressing distain for his unwillingness to broach a relationship, and his wimpish behaviour. This is also further complicated by Tavros genuinely being attracted to Vriska, but too scared of her to commit to a relationship, and their Auspistice Kanaya Maryam's flushed crush on Vriska also, leading to her slacking her duties so to speak.

And now, we move onto the final quadrant, the specifically requested one:

♦️: The Pale Quadrant

Pale relationships are called a Moirallegiance, in which two trolls are Moirails. This quadrant can be liked to soulmates, but with a more platonic (yet still romantic) lean.

Moirails, also called Palemates, exist with the purpose to calm down and pacify their Pale partner. Trolls are (said to be) inherently an angry, violent species, with some being dangerous to themselves or society if left alone. Pale attraction exists for a troll of such tendencies to find a partner who can pacify them (positively), and for even-tempered trolls to seek out those who would benefit from their assistance.

A perfect Moirallegiance is said to consist of two trolls who mutually pacify and assist each other, whose emotional profiles fit together well, helping them to form other relationships in different quadrants with ease.

Moirallegiance is often confused by trolls for platonic friendship, and vice versa, and furthermore, Flushed attraction may be confused for Pale. The Flushed quadrant is said to be "more red" than the Pale one by Eridan Ampora, and likewise the Pitch quadrant "blacker" than the Ashen one, as one might expect from their describing colours.

The most well known Moirallegiance in Homestuck would of course be Meowrails, Nepeta Leijon and Equius Zahhak. Others include the Draconian Dignitary and Bec Noir, Karkat Vantas and Gamzee Makara, and Feferi Peixes and Eridan Ampora (although Eridan held a Flushed crush for Feferi, similar to the one Kanaya held for Vriska during her Moirallegiance with her).

Finally, the an important thing that Moirail can do for their partner, in cases of both dire need of calming down, and a lighter gesture of aid, is the Shoosh Pap, performed by Karkat Vantas to Gamzee Makara to calm him down from his murderous rampage at the end of Act 5 Act 2. Karkat says:

IT'S JUST A TROLL THING, HUMANS WOULDN'T GET IT.

You would think this is everything, and it almost is, but Hussie's explanation forgoes one particular part of troll romance that is only later elaborated on by Karkat:

♥️♠️♥️♠️: Group Vacillation

Um.

You see.

Do you get it?

I think the diagram is clear enough.

Ok, we're done here.

Edit: it is worth noting that this system of quadrants is actually quite limited, both in terms of actual occurrences in the comic, and how it is often portrayed in fanfiction and fanworks, as (due to its time of writing) does not take into account polyamory in the same quadrant.

Edit 2: Redrom also has nothing canonically related to "pity". Saying "I pity you" to a Moirail or Matesprit in place of "I love you" is not a normal thing for trolls; it's based in a model that exclusively Karkat Vantas came up with and talks about, because of his repressed emotional state; he believes there can only be two emotions, hate and pity, and all other emotions are derived from the two. It's not an accurate representation of the workings of troll romance, only a reflection of his state within the comic.

If you want to know *all* about *all* canon examples of *all* four quadrants, or explanation of the other species's versions of romance, those will have to come at a later date. I could also probably make diagrams. But that will have to do for now, I'm afraid. If you find any inaccuracies that aren't about the spelling of Moirallegiance, (trust me, even the comic doesn't know how to spell it), please let me know! I can also probably answer any questions or clarifications in any reblogs, asks, or replies, but they won't necessarily be this extensive.

(Oh and also if anyone wants me to explain that one gif from the section, I can do that too. You know the one.)

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