Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 23:44:48 -0600 (CST) From: The Drake To: Jae Walker Subject: FLUFF: Apocolypse Part V /\ / \ / \ ________________. ___ ._______ / | / \ | _ \ | (-----| |----`/ ^ \ | |_) | \ \ | | / /_\ \ | / .-----) | | | / _____ \ | |\ \-------. |________/ |__| /__/ \__\|__| `._________| ____ __ ____ ___ ._______ _________. \ \ / \ / / / \ | _ \ / | \ \/ \/ / / ^ \ | |_) || (-----` \ / / /_\ \ | / \ \ \ /\ / / _____ \ | |\ \---) | \__// \__/ /__/ \__\|__| `._________/ / Mailing List \ /________________________________\ _______ ___ ___ ___ _______ _______ | _ ) ) | Y | _ Y _ ) | I___| | | | | l___| l___| | __) | |__| | | __) | __) | | | l | l | | | | | | |______l_______| | | | `---' `---' `---' *APOCOLYPSE IN THE AHO'ELL SYSTEM* Part V Written by SW-RPG Mailing List Members for SW-RPG Mailing List Members ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ < Chris Koch > The Crimson Jihad (Limaan Lymm, Minos Hurloon, Damian Yor and Qel'Sol) gazed out into the mass of disgustingly well-armed fluffsters. "Yeesh." said Minos, "Haven't seen a fighting force like this since the assault on Yggdrasil. Now THAT was a fight! How many Storm Commandos did you kill then Qel?" "643." replied the cyborg. "But those we're only the ones that died instantly." "Good times, good times..." said Minos, wistfully. Limaan stepped up to the potium. Damian was originally going to give this speech, but since Limaan had garnered such popularity with the whole beer thing, he was given the responsibility. "Gentlemen, ladies, others," Limaan paused, as he considered whether or not to give a huge dramatic speech like Damian had before. He almost decided to, but then the part of his brain which was against it smacked the part of his brain which was for it with a lead pipe. Instead, he bellowed, in his perfect tenor voice, "LET'S ROCK AND RO-O-O-O-O-O-O-OOOOOOOOLL!" and slammed the Empress' key into the FTD (Fluff Telepotation Device) which had been conveniently changed from "call" to "send". A massive teleportal opened. Limaan lept ont his Heavily Modified Sky Slicer, Qel lept onto the drouge/tractor beam addition it pulled behind it, and they barreled through the portal, followed by the other Fluffsters. Within seconds, they were up to their jugulars in K'thuk's Dark Side minions. Various Dark Jedi and Dark Side constructs of all kinds swarmed about them. "MAY THE FLUFF BE WITH YOU!" screamed Damian, and the fight began. < MSTR Trench > Kaal was just minding his own business, cradling the Holy Hand Grenade affectionately, when he was sucked into a portal and surrounded by Dark Side demons. He pocketed the grenade and pulled out his blaster. "Listen Damian, if you keep doing these teleportations I think I'm gonna puke." Two Dark Siders fell, unable to keep concentration long enough to deflect any blaster shots. Damian was indignant. "Well, we had to go sooner or later!!! Besides Limaan did it." "Come on, man!" screamed Limaan. "Stop blaming me." Kaal looked around to see what was happening. The ghostly form of Minos was walking around, Dark minions fleeing just at the sight of this legend. The Drake took out his Black and Decker lightsaber and began to hack away, only to find that it didn't have Energizer batteries and wouldn't work. (Anyone remember that commercial?) "Darn," said Drake. "What a waste. But not to worry," he said gallanty,"I still have 5 more!!!!" With a gleeful shout he dove into the battle. Then Kaal saw something. At the far end of the great hall, directing the action, could it be??? Yes. "Crivix K'thuk!!!" he whispered to the Drake. The word passed quickly, and the grim band of munchkinized FLUFFsters pressed on twice as fast. Now they could not be stopped, they felt, because of one Heroic roll on the Munchinize Stats force power.... ...which was accidentally used on the glob of slime. Gilga-squish grew to mythic proportions, and began to gobble up the Dark Siders like popcorn. "Attaboy, Giliga-squish!!!" said Fett, and jumped along side him.... < Jedi Iles > As soon as Jedi Master Iles heard the call 'Crivix K'thuk', he knew it was time for his newly modified armor to take action. He took a quick glance around, making sure that no FLUFFsters were too close, then pushed the small 'power' button. Suddenly, from dozens of spots on his armor, the shining blades of lightsabers poking out of recessions in the armor. "Thank the Maker for Jae's lightsabers. CHARGE!!!!!!!!!" Master Iles screamed as he charged into the fray, hacking K'thuk's Dark Side Adepts and Dark SPAM constructs apart as he plowed the way to the Dark Lord. Between himself and Gilga-Squish the Minions(tm) were soon all dead, digested, or fleeing in terror. As he came to the end of the room, he stopped and just looked up at the Dark Lord...(insert dramatic pause here) ********************************* < Christian Rick > Trac Shaddar run through the portal, on the other side he felt instantly at home! The whole place was infested by the dark side, a sith's paradise. He quickly snapped out of it when he saw his comrades getting attacked by the dark side beasts. "Trac Shaddar to the SSD Lord of Sith, reply please, no make that REPLY NOW OR I'LL HAVE YOU EXECUTED!!!!" "This is lieutennant Lers Gonnd, acting captain of the SSD Lord of Sith, we hear you *loud* and clear" "Are you reciving my cordinates?" "Yes, I got them on my view screen right now" "Good, how soon can you and the rest of the battle fleet be here?" "Normally in a few days, but concidering that this is a fluff make that a few minutes." "Good!! And when you get here shoot at everything you see!!! just lock onto the biggest energy source or any thecnical gumbo jumbo as that will ya!!" "Oh, sir we just recived notice that a sovereign-class warship have joined the fluff, it seems to be one of the Empress' ships. Shall we join forces with them?" "Yeah, yeah, do what every you want, JUST GET OVER HERE AND CAUSE SOME SERIOUS DAMAGE OR I'LL HA... Ehh... I think you know what! Trac out!" A few meters away Trac heard the Drake swearing about not having energizer batteries. "Here you go" said throwing a packet bateries to him and smiling and putting his thumb up, the Drake did the same. "Sithos, refreshing when evrything seems to be going bad!!" "Now, lets get back to some serious hack'n slaying!!!" ********************************* < Matt Francis > 'AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!' Fett screamed his family's battle cry as two incredible things happened: The plot actually was moving and Gilga-squish grew to Death Star scale proportions. 'Cool' Unhooking his water pistol/lightsaber combo he let them have it. He carved, sliced and sploshed his way through the dark minions, the greatest fluffsters ever at his side, and then suddenly the fighting stopped. He looked up at Cri.... Crivi .... Ank oo, Criv'ix K'thuk....and grinned. 'Remember me? You wanted to give me an evil maniacal cackle implant, my little friend here objects to that' He said pointing to Muchas Gilga-squish 'JJIIIIHHAAAAAAADD!! BEEEEEEEEEERRR! It screamed But the dark god only laughed. 'You think you pathetic little creatures scare me? I could defeat you with any of my servants who are still alive....for example, I'm sure some of you remember....HOMER.J.SIMPSON DARK LORD OF THE SITH?! Minos and Eildath looked at each other in horror 'But instead I have chosen this one.' He reached behind him pulling out a small bearded man. Fett squinted and then pulled something out of his Battle Armour- Every Mandalorian's Factfinder. His finger traced down a page slowly and the other Fluffsters leaned impatiently towards him. 'What is it?' Drake asked. Fett looked at them in horror 'Oh Smeg. IT'S KJA! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!' ********************************* < RJ J Owen > Llandar climbed down from his Mass Ozzy temple and pondered what had just happened. He had been meditating, concentrating carefully, for hours. Suddenly a vision had filed him, one of immense evil. He had seen a Dark Jedi, facing off with a man named Fett. Then came the terrifying part. He had seen a man. A shorter man, and not one looking incredibly terrifying. A man with hair. The man himself was not so bad, is was the presence he carried with him. Though unskilled in the Force, Llandar had encountered enough bad authors in his time to recognize this. This man was his new enemy. The second most powerful of all the Dark Lords of Bad SW novels. Since the defeat of that terrible book "Children of the Jedi"'s master, he had remained undaunted and had taken some time to train himself. Now he had a new enemy. Risen since his defeat in Champions of the Force, Kevin J. Anderson had returned once again to haunt us, and had brought Lady Kathryn, author of the New Rebellion with him. Llandar Starlight clipped his Lightsaber to his belt and headed for his YT-1500 light sock freighter, the Stars Light. After removing all static with his temperal space downey drives, he light up the repulsive engines and hovered over the planets surface. He plotted the coordinates of his first destination, Slyloth, where he would pick up his Twi'lek friend. He would need her during this quest. He would find this threat, and stop it, putting an end to all the torturer once again. ********************************* < "Eric Lee Cline" > Eildath grimaced. "KJA? Not him! Give us Dark Spam, Dark Zima, anything but him!" "Yes, him," the one even darker than Eildath said. "If only Raptor were here. He appreciates KJA's work." Minos stared at him. Eildath didn't know that eyes could bug out that far. "Y'know, speaking of Raptor, maybe I'd better go back and guard the Wookiee Ale. That ignorant lush might come back here." "JIIIHHHHAAAADDD! BEEEEEEEEEEER!" Gilga-squish cried as Eildath tried to sneak off. A dozen thirsty fluffsters grabbed him and dragged him back to Minos. "Wait!" Eildath cried. "I've got it! The One who can defeat KJA! The One who can cleanse the tainted spirit of the almighty L'HUK'ASS! We need to find the mighty Zahn!" "Or, failing that, Stackpole or Kube-McDowell *might* work." ********************************* < Jeff Wright > Dirk slowly began to regain consciousness. He looked up and found himself still in one piece. It took him a few moments to remember where he was, last he remembered he had been heading directly towards the empresses palace after he had last regained conscious and found the Farseer a wreck around him. He had restored partial power just in time to make a control crash landing. The main view screen was down and even the emergency lights were barley lit. He could only guess how long he had been out. He then staggered out of the pilots chair and made his way to the aft part of the ship and hit the emergency release on the entry ramp. He then staggered down the ramp and found himself face to face with the empresses throne room. Damn, thought Dirk, the empress is going to be pissed when she finds out I crashed right into her private throne room chamber. Looking over into a corner though he saw a large door way. From it was emitting a bright light. The empress's private vault, cool deal, Dirk thought now is my chance to really load up and get into this fluff. Quickly he moved into the vault. He continued searching until he found yet another door way above it read a sign. "RESOURCE POOL" Dirk hurried inside and found a large pedestal with a computer console in front he began accessing the screen and found the first thing he needed. He began accessing the main directory, then went to the sub-directory npcs and called up the file mechanic.txt, he then selected the copies too 25 and pressed on start. On the platform several humanoid forms began to coalesce until there was a total of 25. He then ordered them to begin repairs on the Farseer immediately and then repair the empresses throne chamber. Then a sudden idea hit him. Brought to him by his GM. He selected the directory upload and found some recently uploaded files. He found a document called phaser.txt it was meant for the crossover section of the directory and had just recently been uploaded courtesy of his GM. He then selected copies for two. Slowly coalescing on the platform was two phaser rifle, two phaser pistols, and two type I hand-held phasers. He quickly hid both type I's in his boots, tucked both pistols into his belt, and then strapped the rifles to either side of him using his weapons harness. While not as munchanized as many of the other fluffsters due to the fact it was meant for a cross-over it might have different effects on the SW universe. One last thing then he decided he would be set. He called up the directory equipment, and selected the file rplstank.txt and selected copies to one. On the platform a small tank approx. 6.3 meters long coalesced on the platform. Dirk quickly climbed aboard and began driving the tank towards the waiting portal prepared to do battle. ********************************* < MSTR Trench > Kaal choked down the bile that begged to be let out at the sight of this monster. "No..." he croaked. "We can triumph over bad authors......it is possible....." Then, with a smile, the rigid KJA reached back. And then the FLUFFsters saw it. Darksaber. $5.99 from Bantam Books. The Drake let out a weak cry, and fell to his knees, unable to watch. And - horrors!! - the great abomination KJA began to read the words of his creation. The previously untainted podium was now covered with yesterday's lunch. Nobody had the courage to stop him. He continued to drone on. First in a monotone, and then with greater fervor. But finally, even the great Jedi Criv'ix C'thuk could not take it anymore. With a snap of his fingers, KJA returned from whence he came. "Weakened yet, my friends?" The Dark Jedi cackled as he took a bite out of the spam-and-cheese sandwich he was carrying. < The Drake > Drake was doubled over in pain. The evil KJA had done enough damage and Criv'ix C'thuk had returned him to his dark domain. "We need, Zahn.", he heard someone mumble, doubled over in their own pain. Drake had thought things were going well for the Fluffsters. That squishy thingy had grown to immense size and he had some brand new batteries for his Black and Decker Lightsaber. What went wrong? "None of us will survive to get that Wookie Ale", Eildath said. Drake looked up and saw. . . . . "Don't bet on it, buddy!", Drake replied. "Fett, Eildath, come with me. I have a plan!" "A what?", they answered simultaneously. "Shut up and run!", Drake yelled as he headed out of the battle-zone. Off in the distance, shrowded in smoke and mist, rested their only hope. Off in the distance, Drake had seen, a Barnes and Noble! Zahn would be near! ********************************* < RJ Owen > Llandar speeds away towards the distant planet of Cashedice, deep in concentration. "Timothy Zahn......Timothy Zahn....Hear me. We need you......Where are you....." Suddenly, the Figure of Zahn appears next to Llandar in the ships cockpit. "Well, what can I do for you?" He asks. "Oh wise writer of the best SW novels ever, we need your help. KJA is at it again, and some fellow bad-novel-writer-hater-people are in trouble. He's reading Darksaber your majesty, OUT LOUD!!!!" "Egad!! We have no time to loose. Quickly, pick me up on Cashedice as soon as possible." "I will be there within the hour." "Only one good thing about Darksaber. It got that annoying Callista out of the way. If Bantam had just gone with MY path of Mara Jade and Luke instead of throwing in that stupid thing with Lando, she'd never fall for Lando anyway...." Zahn's image dissappears in a whirle of fuzz, all the while muttering about how bad things had gotten. ********************************* The Star's Light soon docked at the space station in orbit around Cashedice, and Llandar found Zahn eagerly awaiting him. "Quick. I know where they are. KJA loved his crap about the Black hole so much, set your courses for the Big Mama....a black hole unexplored by even the dumbest characters made......" ********************************* < Chris Koch > Minos swung his mighty Vibroaxe, the one that had loyally followed him into the afterlife, and ginerly followed him back into this plane. The spiritual blade sliced cleanly though the Dark Side constructs, halving them once, twice, thrice. He looked up from his gruesome work to see Iles confront K'thuk. Iles prepared to attack...and suddenly pulled back. There, directly between Iles and K'thuk, stood KJA. He drew Darksaber, and used its powers to severely weaken the fluffsters. Then, K'thuk himself grew sickened, and banished KJA to his point of origin. Minos knew what he had to do. "YO CHRIS!" he yelled, speaking to the author of this fluff, "Can you do somethin' here? I mean, it says right here in the script, Act II, Scene II, Minos confronts KJA, and assimilates some of his continuity-mangling powers, destroying him. Can you fix this?" "Sure," I reply, "I control K'thuk, 'cause I made 'im up. I'll simply rewind fluff-time....there, done. Now we're right at the point when K'thuk first summons KJA. As my namesake character, I give you full authority to kick KJA's ass." "Cool. Thanks." "NP, buddy." ********************************* Minos swung his mighty Vibroaxe, the one that had loyally followed him into the afterlife, and ginerly followed him back into this plane. The spiritual blade sliced cleanly though the Dark Side constructs, halving them once, twice, thrice. He looked up from his gruesome work to see Iles confront K'thuk. Iles prepared to attack...and suddenly pulled back. There, directly between Iles and K'thuk, stood KJA. Minos knew what he had to do. "ILES!" he bellowed, "STAND ASIDE! THIS MAN....IS MINE!" Iles stepped back as Minos strode through the carnage. Minos stared into the face of his opponent. "So," he said, "we meet at last." "Yes." replied the KJA. "Are you prepared to meet your destiny?" "Always. There can be only one!" With that Minos and KJA charged each other. They collided, and there was a massive flash of light. When the smoke cleared, there stood only one. And it was Minos Hurloon. "As I said," he stated, "There can be only one. NOBODY'S as much of a smeggin' abomination on the face of continuity as me! Not even KJA! His powers, at least in part are now mine." A cheer went up from the fluffsters. The battle raged on elsewhere. Qel, Limaan, Damian and the rest of the Fluffsters were up to their collective right frontal lobes in K'thuk's Dark Side Slaves. I'd write a full description of the combat, with all the gory details, but, frankly, I'm too lazy, and I wanna watch Gargoyles. Here's a few highlights, at least from Qel, Limaan, and Damian's battles: Damian Yor looked around him. The odds were....interesting. Lightsaber combat with 100 Dark Jedi at once (a'la Cyrano de Bergerac). He brought up lightsaber combat, danger sense, combat sense, and enhance attributed DEX, steeling himself for the coming battle. Several of the Dark Jedi stepped up, hurling force lightning and bolts of rage. Damian prepared to parry...and then dropped all his force powers, and deactivated his lightaber. The blasts of darkside energy struck his body, and the Dark Jedi cheered, for they were sure he was dead. He was not. Damian brought up channel energy, absorbing the power from their attacks, as well as energy from the surrounding atmosphere. Mixing it with some of his own force energy, he released it. The resulting blast left 2/3 of the 100 Dark Jedi vaporized, and formed a rather impressive blast crater. He then re-raised lightsaber combat, and proceeded to gracefully dispatch the last 33 1/3 Dark Jedi (the 1/3 Dark Jedi being an evil Hoojib). Qel stood face to face with a former Monk of Shimura, turned to the Dark Side. In a battle where both combatants were equally skilled, it would simply come down to a matter of the Dark Ka (a dark side variation on the Ka) vs. Teras Kasi. The two battled back and forth for an hour, striking and parrying, advancing and falling back. The Dark Monk finally scored a powerful hit, damaging Qel's armor, stunning him, and knocking him back. Qel appeared to be finished, but suddenly, a surge of power burst though him (Force Point!) The monk prepared to land the fatal blow, and Qel surged forth, with a powerful Steel Hand strike. He landed the blow firmly in the center of the monk's chest, sending a shockwave reverberating throughout his entire body, shattering his bones, and jellying his innards. Limaan flew a few short meters above the battle on the Screaming Raven. Sweeping over the evil hordes, he carfully picked of a monster here, a Dark Sider there, and K'thuk's army began to dwindle. The fluffsters were winning! Limaan began to attack in ernest, swooping down into the battle, and shredding straight through enemies with speed and a Double-Bladed Lightsaber. Finally, only one Dark Jedi remained of the entire army. Limaan hovered, about 100 meters away from him. Nervously, the Dark Jedi activated his lightaber. Limaan activated his. Then, without warning, limaan kicked the Raven into full throttle, and charged the Dark Jedi at approximately 580kmh. The Dark Jedi held his ground, preparing to parry...and Limaan performed a corkscrew manuver, gliding right past the Dark Jedi's defenses, and thrusting home, the tip of his saber passing cleanly through the center of his opponent's head. The battle was over. The ground lay littered with the scarred and scorched corpses of K'thuk's slaves. The fluffsters advanced toward Criv'ix K'thuk, Minos at the forefront, and the massive Gilga-Squish bringing up the rear. K'thuk laughed manaically. "FOOLS!" he bellowed, "YOU BELEIVE YOURSELEVES TO HAVE SMITED ALL MY SERVANTS? ONE REMAINS. AND YOU MUST DO BATTLE WITH....HER" Out of the shadows stepped a dark and lithe form. A lightsaber ignited from its left hand. Then, it lifted its right hand, and a blast of white energy, like liquid steel, burst forth. It travelled through the upper atmosphere, and then the void of space, and struck Trac Shaddar's newly built Eclipse Class Star Destroyer. The "Lord of Sith" was completely demolished. "The Fzook..." gasped Eildath. The dark and lithe figure's cloak fell back to unveil the face of Empress Jae. She began to advance towards the fluffsters, obviously intent on combat. "TELL ME..." queried K'thuk, "WILL YOU DESTROY YOUR BELOVED EMPRESS? I THINK NOT. BUT WHAT OTHER CHOICE DO YOU HAVE? NO KNOWN FORCE IN THE MULTIVERSE COULD FREE HER FROM MY GRASP...SHE IS MINE IN BODY AND SOUL." And with that, Criv'ix K'thuk laughed maniacally. < Joe Coleman > Upon hearing that, Deeharin Lighthand promptly popped in from outside the multiverse. "What about forces outside the multiverse, O foolish guy with an unpronoucable name?" With that said, Deeharin began to run towards the Empress whilst dodging s. As Deeharin ran towards his destination, he pulled out his lightsabre and ignited it, causing a green-streaked silver blade to emerge. Before reaching the mighty Empress though, he slipped on a small puddle of slime left by the gilga-squish and landed flat on his back with his lightsabre flying off. The sabre hit the ground near the Empress and began rolling towards her, ripping a hole in the Star Wars Multiverse. As he stood up, shaking his head to clear the stars floating about it, he watched as the sabre cut a hole under the Empress' unsuspecting feet, causing her to fall out of the multiverse, and out of Criv'ix K'thuk's grasp. "Oh bother," said Dee, "That'll be difficult to apologize for." < Chris Koch > The Empress slipped out of the multiverse, as the fluffsters stared on in disbelief. "Who the hell's that guy?" queried Qel? "I dunno." replied Limaan. "Someone from a different multiverse, tho' I have no clue how that's possible." added Damian. "And," piped in Minos, "it looks like he'll be here for a while, his saber just fell through the hole it cut, out of the multiverse." And, as holes in the fabric of the multiverse tend to do, it promptly closed on itself. "Smeg." said Deeharin. "Yup, that's what they all say, " admonished Iles, "they all say 'Smeg.'" "Here," said Trac Shaddar, as he fumbled about in his robes, "you can borrow my extra saber--" at this point several dozen Lightsabers fell from Trac's robes, clattering onto the ground. The fluffsters gave Trac a collective admonishing stare. "I-I was gonna put 'em back, honest!! I was only borrowin'--" Trac was interrupted by K'thuk. "EXCUSE ME," he said, "BUT I THINK YOU'RE STRAYING FROM THE PLOT AGAIN. NOW CAN WE PLEASE GET BACK TO THE PLOT?" "Which is?...." replied the fluffsters as a whole. "ME DESTROYING YOU ALL, AND THEN PROCEEDING TO CONSUME ALL OF REALITY WITH THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE." "Oh." said Minos. "AND NOW..." K'thuk paused dramatically. "YOU DIE!!" K'thuk began to summon up massive dark side energies, preparing to destroy the fluffsters, as Minos made a quick mental check list of all the resources they had to fight him with: A whole lot of rather well-equipped fluffsters. A plot device. A Sith Artifact containing the souls of the Fluff Haters. A small battle fleet in orbit. The remains of the vault which once imprisoned K'thuk. Part of the reality-warping powers of KJA. OK, he knew what they had to work with, but what could they do? He had a feeling it would be some kind of big dramatic group action involving all the fluffsters, but he had no idea what it was. That's one of the problems with being dead: makes it hard to look towards the future. < Joe Coleman > Deeharin picked up one of the Lightsabres Trac had dropped, and with a nod in his direction, started walking towards that Criv'ix guy, carefully stepping around the small puddles of slime. As he reached a near distance to Criv'ix, Deeharin stopped, clipped the borrowed lightsabre onto his belt, and pulled out an official-looking notepad. "Do you have the permits for that much Dark Side energy and your Mega-Super Villian Membership card, sir? If you don't I'll have to pull you in on counts of disturbing the multiverse, raising a ruckus, and, most importantly, disturbing the Empress (just to name a few). And if you don't have your Mega-Super Villian card, well, just hope their union goes nice on you (not that that's likely)." That said, Deeharin mimed scribbling a couple things in his notebook and stood there waiting for Criv'ix to respond. ********************************* ._,. "..-..pf. -L ..#' .+_L ."]# ,'j' .+.j` -'.__..,.,p. _~ #..<..0. .J-.``..._f. .7..#_.. _f. .....-..,`4' ;` ,#j. T' .. ..J....,'.j` .` .."^.,-0.,,,,yMMMMM,. ,-.J...+`.j@ .'.`...' .yMMMMM0M@^=`""g.. .'..J..".'.jH j' .'1` q'^)@@#"^".`"='BNg_...,]_)'...0- .T ...I. j" .'..+,_.'3#MMM0MggCBf....F. j/.+'.{..+ `^~'-^~~""""'"""?'"``'1` .... .y.} `.._-:`_...jf g-. .Lg' ..,..'-....,'. .'. .Y^ .....',].._f ......-f. .-,,.,.-:--&` .`...'..`_J` .~......'#' '..,,.,_]` .L..`..``.