March 29, 2024
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Crowne plaze Hotel and convention center in Denver , Colorado

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Whats up everyone? Hanka here to go over all the highs and the lows of the Dark Carnival

Games con 2018 in Denver Colorado.

I’ll be touching on the fun, and the moments I REALLY enjoyed and I will also be going on the

bones in detail. So with that being said let’s get into it.

Tuesday May 15th and Wednesday May 16th.

It was the day of departure from South Carolina. I had car issues so instead of going to Cherokee North Carolina to meet up with my homie Chief, he and my other homie Paige came down to get me at my house. Once they got here we loaded up all of our games and got ready to make the monstrous 26 hour trip. Once we left my house it was close to 8:30pm. We headed out on the strange route where we had to leave South Carolina, hit Georgia, Go up to Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado.

Once we got to Georgia, Paige got out her Nintendo Switch and I played a fishing game on it. I somehow managed to catch a shark. It killed a nice hour or so of the trip. We skated through most of the trip until we hit Illinois. Then it became a very long straight shot. Missouri and Kansas were SO. LONG. When we hit Kansas we encountered a HUGE thunderstorm/tornado. The whole truck was just in awe. So what did we do in our sleep deprived and delusional state? We put on Wizard of the Hood. It was only fitting being in a Kansas tornado. At this point we were 3 hours or so away. The hotel couldn’t come soon enough. We finally hit Colorado. We parked the truck at the hotel only to deal with the first bone of the weekend.

Thursday May 17th.

Once inside the hotel it was officially Thursday. We had driven the entire Wednesday away. I walked up to the hotel check in at around 12:45-1am We decided that checking in here a night early would benefit us after all that driving. I got out my cash to pay for the room and I was met with nothing but issues. If anyone knows me… they know I double, triple, even quadruple check my trips… this includes checking with hotels about hidden fees, credit card holds, security deposits etc. So trust me when I say this…i had all my bases covered. They refused to take cash which was an issue for me because I had pulled all of my cash out of my account after talking to someone 3 days prior and making sure I could pay with cash. They refused to budge. I was also told no security deposit. Which they didn’t budge on. I used 1 card I had on me and they said it couldn’t be used, so I had to think fast because no one in my crew had money on a card… so I called my grandmother. Now my grandmother is the sweetest lady in the world. But calling her at 1am Colorado time, 3am South Carolina time… I probably scared her to death. We have an account used for emergencies. So I asked if I could get the card number and I would just have them hold the room with that and pay cash when I left after the con was over. She is also blind… and had a hell of a time giving me the card number. We finally got that all situated and guess what? The hotel said “We couldn’t charge that card… something about failed to connect” which is of no fault of mine. So after all of this they told us to go load a prepaid debit card at a gas station… we agreed to do so only problem was finding a gas station willing to do this at 2am by this time. We managed to find one after driving around for no less than an hour. We put the money on the card (which in my sleep deprived state I didn’t realize but they had even gotten my rates wrong and had us spending almost $700 on our room) and headed back to hotel. Once there we gave them the card and they ran it… we had the account pulled up on our app’s just to make sure, and they pulled $100 off of the card, but said they couldn’t pull the rest. Even though it clearly said we had the money on the card and we were showing it to them. I was at the end of my rope. 26 hours from home, no money because of their fuck up, and ready to just sleep. The lady working the counter finally had enough of my shit because she just gave us a card and said here and handed us a room key. We finally could lay down. We had a homie come to the room who immediately let me eat an edible and it helped me calm down after all that crazy shit. We were in and getting ready to sleep so we could mingle with everyone and get ready for day 0 of the con!

Day 0 Thursday after we woke up.

We woke up around 10am after a nice bit of sleep was finally had. I went down to front desk to make sure that the money situation and card situation was fixed and to complain and tell them how terrible their system for check in was. I talked to a manager who fixed my rates, made sure everything was taken care of and assured me I would get $100 of my money back upon checkout (In cash) per the security deposit. I went back to the room only to find out that the emergency card I called my grandmother to use earlier that morning…. had been charged over $3000 and was locked. UN. BELIEVEABLE. I was FURIOUS. I went back and talked to the manager who promised they would make it right. After all of the bullshit I had dealt with from the hotel I just went back to my room and grabbed my Quest for Shangri-la game… it was time to forget the bullshit and be around the real reason I was in Colorado, the juggalos! I set up on one of the glass tables in the atrium of the hotel. As the game was laid out waiting on players Vinnie the ICP Kid walked up! It was so dope talking to Vinnie for a few moments. He snapped a picture of me and my board set up and went about his way. It was on at that point. I met up with some other juggalos and it was game time. We got down on a few games of quest and it was time to find food at that point. I packed up and went to the room to order a pizza and chilled out for a while. Hooked up the firestick and put on the classic “La Bamba” movie. Couldn’t complain with how the rest of my day had been at that point. After I finished eating I went back out in the atrium to play some more quest. I sat down and got things set up for some more games and thats when I met up with some of the other quest players from the last con and the previous gathering. I also had run into Hashly at this point said hello and she was gonna go outside to mingle. We set up and started playing a game we got about an hour into it and I heard about some kind of commotion going on outside… that’s when Hashly came up to me in almost tears. Now we may no longer be a couple but I care about her, I don’t wanna see ANYONE hurt or crying so I immediately asked whats going on? She told me that some guys were outside, throwing rocks, and some kid got beat up with a skateboard. I at this point saw lots of people coming in from outside. I was told by a close homie that it was some juggalos that had been getting shit talked to them all year online. So when they came they came with guns and came to shut down the con. All I cared about was making sure Hashly and the rest of my homies outside were safe. I made sure she was ok, helped her out with something she needed help with, messaged all my homies that were at the hotel to double check and finished my game. Once we were finished I packed up and retired to my room for the night. Told Chief and Paige what had happened and they both didn’t know what to think really. At this point we just were ready for the con to start and forget about any drama. See you inside the convention tomorrow juggalos!

Day 1 Friday May 18th

Once I woke up on friday. I took a shower and made sure I was ready for what was going to go down at 10am! I got dressed, went out to the atrium around 9:30 then made my way down what everyone had at this point was calling “The Amazing Maze” which was a long stretch of hallways connecting hotel to convention center. I got down to the ticket line, gave my ticket to Natalie who was working the ticket booth, and got my 3 day badge! It’s on like donkey kong y’all! 10Am hit and the line for the convention started pouring in. We got inside and it was a MAD DASH to the merch booth for the new expansion to “Into the Echoside” “The Oracle of the Three Rings”. This expansion had been in talks for ever. Supposed to release at The Gathering 2017, then pushed to a possible hallowicked release… but now here it was, in person. Once in line I was looking at my phone making sure as not to miss the first Quest for Shangri-La tournament. It was about 6 minutes until it started and I couldn’t move in line… so I handed my money to Toots (Thanks again homie) she picked up my copies of the game and I rushed off to grab my seat for the tournament. Once I sat down I was in full gaming mode. I had been talking all kinds of shit for over a year online about how “I’m the champ” and “The real champ was here” etc. I’m sure everyone had enough of my mouth by the first 5 minutes of play. I wanna give a special shout out to “Hatter” the judge of the quest tournaments. He called everything right down the line and made sure the best person won. I’ll spare you the details of the full match. It came down to me and another juggalo for 1st and 2nd place. I made it to shangri-la only to draw milenkos wand. I ended up having the other player discard all his items… but it was too late he was in shangri-la and we were in mortal combat rolls to the death. I rolled so many instant wins that it was insane BUT… this dude knew what was up. He was “cemetery girl” whos power is she can eat her “Homies” to gain a life. BOY DID HE EAT HIS HOMIES 6 of them to be precise. I could have killed him at least 4 times if he didn’t have homies. Alas… he beat me. Luck and skill were on his side and I came in 2nd place. I shook his hand and said good game and as I watched him painfully stick his name on the masters board where my name should have went I prepared myself for the next tournament at 2:30pm. After I left the area I walked back to my room to put up all the games and extra cards I had purchased and gotten for people.

At this point I was getting a little hungry, I stopped by the “Food Court” area inside of the convention hall. It was crazy over priced and they had nothing I wanted so I ended up grabbing a poweraid and walked back over to see Paige inside the video game tent winning her round of the Mario Kart Tournament put on by Kegan the Creep Ass

He had such an awesome area set up, two giant 55 inch screens blasting the new mario kart on Nintendo Switch for players, and also about 6-8 arcade machines all set to free play. Some retro classics along with arcade favorites like Mortal Kombat. I peeked in for a few then continued walking around snapping pictures, talking to people and just having fun. It was now time to get ready for the next round of Quest for Shangri-La tournaments. I sat down at the table again and once again sparing you all the details of the game itself… I came up short. Knocked out in the 1st round. No biggie I still had one more shot at 6:30.

(Photo by Cherry Bomb www.photosbycherrybomb.com/DCGCon-2018)

Once again I roamed the floors. I ran into Scottie D who had with him this amazing custom wrestling style belt that was going to be for the winner of the Ultimate Tsuro Challenge that Faygoluvers was hosting. We spoke briefly and continued walking around. I ran into Hashly again and spoke to her about I believe food. Which reminded me to grab an edible and eat it. What an idea that was. Thanks again Jerm the edibles were amazing. It was fun just walking around and talking to people for a few hours. I stopped back into the video game area where KG and Carnival Spirits were running the Backyard Wrestling tournament! That was so fun taking it back to the game that got me interested in game design. And playing it with one of the creators doing commentary! I sadly got knocked out in the 2nd round due to a faulty controller (No seriously… they offered me another chance to play but I had to get back to quest.)

(Photo by Cherry Bomb www.photosbycherrybomb.com/DCGCon-2018)

I took my seat at 6:30 and we got into what I would soon find out was the LAST game of the ACTUAL DCG con. We got set up for a 2 round tournament. 2 winners will duke it out for 1st and 2nd place and the two losers of the tables duked it out for a 3rd place prize and a 4th place walk of shame back to their room. I rolled the dice with everything I had, I used every power and was a snaky, evil, ruthless killer. I managed to take that 1st round. That wasn’t the end for me though. There was still one more round between me and a juggalette named Rhealen. We shook hands and started the next round. It was probably around 7:45pm. We had no idea that across the floor in the main hall the same people that had started all that shit the night before had made their way into the convention and started another fight. We were into our game and just trying to have fun… around 8:05 the announcement was made over the P.A. System. “Attention all juggalos! The main hall is shutting down early tonight! Please move next door to see the Shaggy solo concert in the concert hall! Whoop whoop” We were sitting in a very very close game wondering what the hell we should do? Hatter came over to us and said “Leave the board exactly as it is. Tomorrow at 11am you can come back and pick up right where you were and we will get a 1st and 2nd place for this tournament. Little did we know that wouldn’t happen.

We took pictures of the board and everything so we could make sure no tampering happened, and we walked to the concert hall. There was a buzz in the crowd as to what was going on. Cops, and security were using hand held metal wands on people to enter the concert hall, and all kinds of confusion. The concerts went down without a hitch. SCUM, Froggy Fresh, Big Hoodoo, Shaggy and DJ Clay… it was a very fun show but I kept hearing through the grapevine that the event was 100% canceled after the concerts. I just took it with a grain of salt and went back to my room crazy early and hoped to wake up early and go win my 1st place charm and put my name on the masters board.

Day 2 Saturday May 19th

I was asleep in my bed, when I heard my homie Chief call to me. “Hey Hanka… Con is canceled man” I woke up in a panic and groggily said “What… h h how do we know? Whats going on?”. That’s when he handed me the letter.

A letter was slipped under ours and everyones door around 4-6am that gave us the stale news… In black and white with the hotels letterhead on it. They canceled the con due to safety concerns. I was floored. 26 hours we drove, spent ridiculous amounts of money to be here… and they canceled it after 10 hours. “Whats gonna happen? Are the tournaments over? Are there no more prizes? Is everything just… done?” Chief just shook his head at me and we laid back down to get another hour or so of rest. By the time I had rolled over again and woken up it was probably 8:40am. I got up, freshened up and went to the atrium where a gathering of juggalos had started. Juggalos holding the letters slipped under their doors. Some screaming at hotel staff. Some crying, kids and families just sitting around wondering what the hell had happened to our fresh ass event? I saw Rachel Paul and asked her if she had any info as to what was going on and I got from her what I would get from everyone the rest of the day… “Nothing yet, we’re trying to figure something out”. I remember seeing this photo get posted all over social media that morning. My game table in the background, pieces still where they were from the previous night… and a defeated looking Scottie D looking on.

(Cell phone photo by Hazin)

 

At this point all I could do was wait. I went to the room, put on some shoes and got me a breakfast plate at the hotel restaurant. Some of the best biscuits and gravy I’ve ever had (and that coming from a southern dude). I decided to head back to the room and grab my quest for Shangri-La and walk back to the atrium, I told my homie Chief “I didn’t come over 1000 miles to not play games”. So once I got out there and set up my board a group of juggalos walked over and after we started playing more people started showing up. I noticed my homies Henry and Cara walked up and had some of their “Wicked Dreams Creations” stuff and were setting up a booth in the atrium. Slowly but surely we had started getting our own type of con set up in the atrium area. Next thing I knew it was around 10:45am and I saw Tom Wood’s art being moved out, and being set up. So we were taking over! After some questing, and such it was midday and we saw more and more people coming out. Zane and the juggalo yacht club moved their “You sank my battle yacht tournament” and gotten set up. I took my quest back to my room and went to get some lunch and when I came back out… it was as if the con was still going just minus the big room and fresh little details, the craps table, games games games, art, and merch for sale. Juggalos came out in force as if to say “Fuck that… you can’t shut down our fun.” I left to grab some food, and once I had returned to the hotel I noticed that the ICP show had been moved. We were still gonna be able to see the wicked clowns do their thing! SCUM came and offered his venue “The Roxy” for the night. It was dope seeing that we now had a venue. Meanwhile I noticed people were still gaming and doing their thing! I also happened to notice that there was a line forming outside of a room and I wasn’t sure what. I soon thereafter found out it was a “Into The Echoside” tournament being set up by Andy Sherman, and Louis Simpson. What was awesome is it started a new movement. “#4juggalosbyjuggalos” was being formed! Jumpsteady offered a pack of Holographic epic cards for the winner. That in the eyes of Andy and Louis was crazy special…but juggalos upped the ante. Tons of prizes were donated from juggalos for the juggalos and they ended up having enough for a 1st

2nd

and 3rd place prizes!

I wasn’t on hand to see who won, or many of the prizes but I did bring out my quest game once again to get some games going… while I was playing I had a group of people show up and between myself, Rob Murphy, Kenny Huff, and Hatter we thought “Well if they got people to donate for the Echoside tournament how about we try to make our own Quest tournament tomorrow “4juggalosbyjuggalos”. With that Kendo was off and trying to figure out about how to make this happen. Myself, Rob and Hatter went around to vendors, and random juggalos asking if they would want to donate for the quest tournament for the following day. The response was OVERWHELMING. We got Jerseys, shirts, charms, artwork, even juggalo soaps donated. Hatter took all the prizes and rounded up even more people with quest games to try to get enough for the tournament. After that I got ready for the clowns. We packed up and went into downtown Denver to get our clown on! Once we got to the venue I took my place in line, I wasn’t too terribly far back. I saw Scottie walk out towards the front… someone in line said “OHHHH THERES SCOTTIE D!!! TOO GOOD TO WAIT IN LINE LIKE US HUH?!” And it started a “FUCK YOU SCOTTIE” chant. It was hilarious moment. All love in that chant. Once inside this venue was SMALL. It was going to be a very intimate show you could tell. The vibe inside was electric. People were so happy that the show was still going to happen. Ouija came out and absolutely killed it! Blessing us with a fresh sip of the then still unreleased gutterwater! Ouija is the future yall!! DO NOT SLEEP ON HIM. After a small set change Lyte came out. If you don’t know about Lyte yet. Where you been homie?! Chopping with the best of them watching Lyte on stage is like watching your favorite fast moving action movie, but has the ability to slow it down to an emotional crawl with songs like “One in a million”. GO WATCH HIM. GO. NOW…. (after you’re done reading this review). If you guys have read what i\ve said before about Mac Sabbath… There’s not much else I can say about them. The first and only drive-thru metal band! They are such a fun time. I’ll be a fan forever now. But… it’s time for the wicked clowns!!!

ICP came out with “Walk into Thy Light” and I preparing myself for an emotional set! They didn’t disappoint. With tons of hits, they came out swinging. What really really stood out to me that night was they played “The Greatest Show” for those that don’t know that from the title, it’s their WWF entrance theme just unedited! The ODDITIES theme yall! You could tell who the few wrestling marks were… we were in the crowd doing the “HANDS LIKE THIS” motion from their WWF SummerSlam 98 appearance. It was such a great show, seeing everyone on stage at the end. It was just proof that those who wanted the weekend to fail may have threw a bone our way but didn’t end it for us at all! Thank you again to SCUM and Psychopathic for continuing on like soldiers even with the bone.

Once we were walking back to the truck we passed by Zane and Ouija. They were standing next to a shuttle bus. I had no idea but Zane…. that big hearted dude. He and the yacht club decided to hook juggalos up with a bus from the hotel to venue and back. So dope! After being blessed by Ouizus himself and given a faygo we were back in the truch heading back to hotel. Once we got back I decided to hit the hot tub for a while. Got in and there were a few juggalos and lettes in there. My homie John Paul, myself, Hashly and two other juggalettes were just enjoying ourselves. Then we were graced with an unpainted FlipFlop The Clown. Ok. Timeout. I didn’t know something about him. I thought Flipflops foot gimmick was just that… a gimmick. Turns out it is 100% REAL. Dude LOVES him some girls feet. Me and JP were fucking around and sticking our feet out of the water near him and legit scaring the dude. He said “Guys feet in my face might as well be a dick in my face… it’s that serious” Guys… it was so crazy haha. FlipFlop if you’re reading this… sorry homie. I wont put my feet near your face ever again lol. Once we had got our chill on it was time to retire to my room for the night, but not before getting hit up by Hatter once again. He showed me all the prizes collected for the following day. They were insane. So much freshness. He stopped by my room and I donated out of my personal collection a hallowicked riddlebox shirt and an unopened gathering charm from 2012. With that I got in bed watched some tv and conked out a few hours later.

Day 3 Sunday May 20th

It was sunday. I woke up around 9am. I went downstairs to grab some breakfast and deliver my quest game to Hatter who spoke to a homie named Eric and we secured a room to host the tournament in. I walked in and Andy, Both Hatter and his lady, and Louis Simpson were already setting up in there for the 1pm tournament. Once set up me and Andy talked a bit and reminisced about the old psychopathic traders days, our old screen names, etc. Told him a little more about my own story becoming a juggalo and such. It was nice to finally get some one on one time with him. Andy is good people. His wife is my quest kryptonite though… for real. I walked back into the atrium and stuff was just picking back up from the night previous. People playing games, and having fun. I noticed Kegan “the Creepass” walking around and he figured out a way to get his Mario Kart tournament going which I KNEW was going to make my homie Paige happy. I went to let her know and she was already on her way there. Once I got my myself some food I got back in enough time to get my seat and get ready to quest for shangri-la! I was taking the whole shebang! I sat down and got placed with a group of 4. But we had 5 or 6 games going at once! It was a legit tournament y’all. I sat down and Burgher the previous years Echoside world champion was at the same table as me! She’s as cool as they come! I got knocked out in the first round y’all. I’m not gonna front I was mad nervous for some reason and I made stupid mistake after stupid mistake but with me being eliminated so early that gave me time to check out the mario kart tournament which paige was winning! So I went over there to check it out. Got my fill for a bit of mario kart, and went back to check out the quest finals. It was a CRAZY ending. I have been playing this game for YEARS now. I have never seen people draw and ending card that wins the game for them after they’ve taken 6 turns… and the rest of the board keep switching play order to make sure they couldn’t take their 6 turns. I have the end of the tournament documented on the faygoluvers facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/Faygoluvers/videos/1914291518614762/

It was a good 20 mins of not letting the guy that drew the ending card win. But as happens in life… time got the best of the table and he finally took his 6 turns and won! Congratulations to the winner! I’m so happy we were able to get that tournament up and running. At this point I checked in on Paige and she had unfortunately gotten knocked out of the mario kart tournament in the simi finals. We may have left without prizes in hand but the prize I hold is in my heart. My prize was being apart of this amazing group of people. Juggalos are the craziest people I know but we are also some of the most resilient I know. We came from all over the united states for this event. Had it shut down, and WE… not psychopathic, not the hotel, not anyone but ourselves started it back up. I LOVE being apart of this family. To everyone who had a hand in making my weekend great: You are all crazy special to me. Never stop being who you are!

After things were said and done, I gathered up my games, merch, clothes and headed to the room to pack for the crazy trip home. I kept quest out because I didn’t wanna leave without getting some more good play time in. Packed up everything else and went back to the lobby which was calming down. People were hanging out, just talking about the past weekend. I walked out and saw Jumpsteady, Louis, Andy, Rachel, and Sarah all playing the new echoside expansion. I walked up and just watched. It was about this time when I saw a table full of canned drinks. I was told from someone “Get ready for the pizza party”. I was thinking “Who is bringing pizza and it will be gone like… super quick” I was WRONG. The homie Ogre. This dude went so above and beyond. He ordered like 30 or so pizzas. Had them all delivered and man… the juggalos went crazy for that pizza and drinks. Ogre! My dude. Thank you so much for once again proving that juggalos are the best people in the world!

I grabbed a slice or 2, a drink and I sat down one more time with my game and waited for players. Once some homies walked up, we got into another game or 3. About midway through our game I noticed that the mortons list players were all… walking… in slow…. motion? I’m not sure what was going on but it was entertaining as hell to watch. My entire game was cracking up. We noticed that and that the house music in the hotel was on point. It was nothing but 80’s hits. Jamming out to 80’s music and playing quest is the best! At this time something stale happened. The hotel killed the house lights in the atrium. It was pretty dark and we could barely see anything. Luckily Bobby Doe walked up and we were like “Turn the lights back on Bobby!” all he said was “Bet. Be back in a few” Within 5 minutes… idk where he went or who he talked to… but we had light. Bobby… you are the shit homie! We finished up our games, vowed to see each other next con and gathering, and continue playing. I packed up and headed back to the room to clean up and get ready for load out day. I said my goodbyes for the night and went to sleep.

Day 4 Monday 21st

When we woke up and got the truck packed up, we dealt with another bone from the hotel, they weren’t releasing the $100 deposit that we had on our card immediately (it is now June 29th and still nothing from this hotel). We met up with the few people still around and said some final goodbyes before going to get hotdogs in Denver (Getting hotdogs in different cities is kind of a thing for me). I saw Ben Jewell climbing the indoor waterfall… I KNEW this would involve his butthole. Ben climbed up there dropped his shorts and showed his butthole to everyone! The best part. The front desk couldn’t see it, however anyone checking into the front desk could. Some poor unknowing pilot from the local airport got quite the eyeful upon entering this hotel. With that being said, we were out that bitch!

Before I finish up here I just wanna give some special thanks: Scottie D for once again letting me be apart of the Faygoluvers.net team. Write my reviews and helping me out when he can! You’re one of a kind Donihoo. And he didn’t even kill anyone at this con!

Hashly: Up’s and downs and all arounds… we’ve seen a lot and done a lot. Great seeing you in denver sorry we couldn’t get hotdogs… next time somewhere down the road!

John Paul, Hatter, Rob Murphy, Brett, Kendo, Bobby doe, Bobby, Sarah, Andy, Louis, Jumpsteady, Chad, Jimmy, Cherry Bomb, Zane, Chief, Paige, Kegan, KG Kevin Gill, MC Lars, TJ Larson and all the carnival spirits crew! Jugg Goodman, Glo and Raymond, Jerm, J sicc, Vinnie the ICP Kid (especially for pinching the nipples during one of our quest games), Ouija, Lyte, and anyone else I may have over looked. I love yall! I can’t wait to see you all at the gathering and get down!

Until next time! I’m Hanka!

Be sure to like my Photo page on facebook at www.facebook.com/hankaphotos for all galleries from past and future events!

Whoop whoop!

#4juggalosbyjuggalos

Location:

  • Crowne plaze Hotel and convention center
  • Colorado
  • United States

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    Faygoluvers Comments

  1. spookiTHEfunguy

    SPOOKYtheFUNGI

    Comment posted on Friday, June 29th, 2018 04:50 am GMT -5 at 4:50 am

    Fresh!

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