This school is certainly taking a turn for the Authoritative. Psycurity used to consist of the sleepy fat guy at the front gate - now they've got a small fleet of vehicles, high tech surveillance wagons, and small swat teams creeping behind every bush. Even when things got tense around here last year there weren't Psychic rent-a-cops creeping around like this.

I don't think they're after my Box, otherwise they'd probably just bust in and take it. But maybe their interest in Ender goes beyond juvenile delinquency; those restrictors of his aren't standard Psyhigh issue....


 

2002-1-12   firey ted

The Grand Vizier has returned! Unbelievable! I saw them pushing him around in a wheelchair through the garden maze today. He looked pretty out of it. I guess they're keeping him in the Special wing. Word is that supposedly he was in with those off campus drummer types who crashed the Big and Tall Ball. I've got to talk to him.


 

2001-12-7   firey ted

The GV is passing through a hideous clockwork town. There is a dock, a shipyard, and a seagull in the air. Behind the sun the GV first notices the spings and gears showing through. On closer examination, the seaside is a vaudeville set - waves of wood, the segull on a pulley. But beneath it, the mechanism is intricate - tiny works of gear and lever, minute screws and rivets. Everything perks along, including the townspeople on their bicycles and on foot, carrying baguettes down rainy cobblestone streets, marching like mad giant wind up toys through their mechanical village.

The GV takes a job washing dishes at the local sailor's pub. He works till midnight or later, sleeps till noon, then takes lunch and walks along the pier till his shift begins.

At first he enjoys the hustle and bustle of the automatic town, but as days drag into weeks he finds himself falling into lock step with the mechanized host. Each day becomes akin to flipping through so many ViewMaster(tm) reels - frame after frame of simulated 3-D perfection.

Eventually the GV finds himself shedding gears and wire - sprung springs begin to break through his skin, larger joints in the hips need to get replaced, the teeth fall out and are apparently made of lead....


Since that entry, all the frames of my strange electronic comic have turned to circuitry - black flexible photo-crystal motherboard front and back, on all the pages. I think it ran out of juice.

I sure hope the GV's ok. It's been way too long since he's been gone.

f143Y t
 

2001-11-30   blue_X

The Box Came Back

That night 2 weeks ago we wheeled the black box up to the roof of our building and left it there. We stuck it behind some HVAC equipment, figured it would get lost up there or a physical plant guy would find it and get rid of it for us. It rained and blew real hard that night, but my roommate was especially glad to have it away.

But the next morning it was back, right outside our door. It freaked us out so bad we just brought it back inside and set it on the table. Either somebody knew it was us that put it up there, or....or it has some sort of ambulatory power we were unaware of.

So it sat on the table for a couple of weeks, silently, and we just kind of grew used to it. Until tonight. Tonight it started up again - first static, then tuned in some kind of news program. There was a lot of talk about refugees, 'Eigenform Template Gates', and mention of a 'Dimensional Regulatory Commision.' Then they went to an interview. It was a heavily accented woman, and here is pretty much what she said:

From the sky would fall an incessant rain of bombs
We had nowhere to go but retrieve underground
Our ground had been peppered with a load of mines
Growing our food was a risk at any time
The sudden brutality we had to confront
forced us many years to a life into the ground.

When I came out
after having hidden
for so long
underground

I found I was missing all sensation of sight
It was so dark underground we had seen no light for days
What was visible how there was the enemy
The fact that they were fighting against their better nature
Our voices had been buried for we had not to speak a word for days on end
But what we learned was so strong
They could never win.
They were wrong.
~~~

The next interviews were in no language I've ever heard spoken on this planet. The whole thing gave my roommate and I the chills.




 

2001-11-14   blue_X

After nine months of being an end table, the old box finally woke up. It started buzzing and chirping and my roommate and I spent a good 15 minutes digging under old papers and pop cans looking for a lost cell phone or something till we realized it was the box. After the initial random squeaks and burps (like Mouse on Mars warming up) it began a steady, thumping Ping sound, each ping about 4 seconds apart.

My roommate started to freak.

Things did get a little nervous-making around here last time the box was active. My roommate said it had to leave the room, or he would, and if he left there'd be questions...

So I'm getting rid of it. Tonight. Not sure where, yet, but if we put it on my roommate's skateboard it wheels around pretty easily.

Bye bye box!
 

2001-11-13   kitty

Lately I have collected these things through the dimensional rift in my back yard:

one Bike
A Cloak
mouse

Grandma has let me go on small trips through the tiny crack, as long as I am accompanied by one of the cats, or our wooden girlfriend (did I mention she was a wooden girl? She is very nice and has moved into one of Grandma's guest rooms. She was made in Iran!).

On my trips I've begun to trade and barter and bring things home. The bike is very nice - it's got a basket, a bell that rings, and things to make it look good. I didn't actually trade for it, though - it's just borrowed.

The cloak is a bit of a joke - it's red and black and has got a tear up the front. Grandma thinks it could look good and I guess it should, but who wears cloaks anymore? Maybe Grandma...

And finally, the homeless mouse that followed us back. He seems to hold his own with the cats I don't know why I call him Gerald. He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse. I've warned him that my cats are not vegetarian and I could not be responsible for his well being but he's staying put. The cats, however, whisper amongst themselves about him, and I don't really think they would eat him. There's something about him that they're not telling me.

It is a cold and windy and rainy night. It smells like Grandma has made clan of gingerbread men - lots of gingerbread men. I must get to them soon before any of the animals do!

xxx ooo


 

2001-11-6   fruitbat

I was exploring some of the trails in the lower woods, trying to find a way into town. Specifically, to the video store. We've been watching a lot of videos in the tree house lately. The bus from school takes forever, and the Mystik Hippie Women say I need to cut down my monoxide intake, so I was looking for a short cut through the woods.

The trail I picked ended up at what looked like a potato cellar or an underground pumphouse. It looked abandonded, so I figured I'd explore.

It was anything but a potato cellar. Instead, it was some kind of network operations center - video monitors and computer screens on the walls, long control panels with smaller screens, and guys like aircraft controllers hunched over them, drinking coffee, smoking cigarrettes. They were talking into headsets and saying things like "Gimme a breakdown on five" and "Ok, cue the dog" and "Homeless guy vomits on my mark - mark!" I just stared at them till somebody said "Hey kid! How about those sandwiches already?!" I just turned and ran.

But in town, I did pick up some sandwiches, and on my way back I dropped them off. I'm not sure what's going on in there yet, but I did make $10.
 

2001-8-5   kitty

Grandma and I have made a new friend! She came in through the crack with the black cat last night. And she brought a very large sack of loot for grandma and I.

She doesn't talk much but she's very nice. I think maybe she is from a foriegn country, but of course whatever is on the other side of that crack is very foriegn. She dresses all in black, and even though I can't see her face I think she must be very pretty. And even though she doesn't talk she's real polite and very outgoing.

I asked the black cat all about her. For a cat who can talk, he sure doesn't say much. I think he just wants to act like he knows more than he does, and he really doesn't know a thing about her. He did say she's friends with our agent on the other side. But he wouldn't tell us her name.

So the girl and the black cat spent the night, and this morning we sent them back through the crack with fresh supplies. Then Grandma and I spent the afternoon going through their haul - golden masks, maps, spring loaded cramp-ons, silver shoes, spinning bird whistles, hand painted coasters. I'm sure grandma's friends will take it all off our hands.

Now that crack is big enough to fit a person through, I wonder if grandma would let me go?

xxx ooo
 

2001-7-27   firey ted

The GV sits at a table at an outdoor cafe. Opposite sits a small figure clad in black from head to toe. They chat while strange scenes pass behind them - inverted mushroom landscapes, bat winged mad scientists in goggles and gloves, aquarium close-ups, driver's ed films...

The small figure reaches for a glass of water. The hand is that of a dainty girl. As it clasps the glass there is a small *tink*. On closer inspection the small hand is made of wood.

The GV drinks a tall glass of beer and works at a sausage with a knife and fork. He also talks continually, gesticulating with his utensils. The small figure giggles occasionally and covers her mouth with small wooden hands. Her face is veiled, but the GV makes fleeting eye contact between bites.

Her eyes seem to be made of antique glass, but move in their orbits to watch a poodle as it trots down the sidewalk next to them.




 

2001-7-24   Goli

My wooden automatic girl has disappeared.

The night came to venture into Ubermenscher's room. I established a virtual private psychic network link with my toy and walked her out of my room and across the commons to Ubermenscher's building. I was not followed, as I watched from my window and saw no one; nor did I spy anyone through the mind's eye tunnel vision of the VPPN link.

The lock picking tool was secured to the automaton's forefinger, and the door
was opened in less than three seconds.

The room was dark, and we moved into it and shut the door. It was then I lost contact. Nothing. It is as if she has just disappeared. The connection is gone, and she does not show up on radar. And I cannot walk past the room without giving myself away. What am I to do?!!?? Ubermenscher!!!!

 

2001-7-9   firey ted

The GV walks down the hall of what appears to be a Transformationalist Exhibit. Dioramas depicting various natural settings line the hall on the right and left. Here a cave, there a meadow, a board room, a high castle tower....sculpted figures posed in natural surroundings, blending indistinguishably with realistic painted backgrouds.

The GV looks up and down the empty hall.

Alarms blare, emergency lights go on and gaurds race down the hallways, picture guns loaded and drawn.

The GV is nowhere to be found. Tell-tale broken flora in the High Desert exhibit leads investigators to consider the rattlesnake, owl, and skunk for a short time.


 

2001-6-27   kitty

Grandma and I have set up a trading post! Our house is still stuck in between the planes, but we've widened the crack in the scenery to allow the black cat to pass through carrying larger and larger parcels. Grandma knitted him a jaunty little napsack, and the boy on the other side has become our agent. The black cat goes through with some snacks or a flashlight, and returns with odd objects like slinkys and orbs and idols and scrolls.

I never knew grandma had so many friends, but they've been flying in to visit and pick through our loot. And they pay grandma in little sacks of gold or silver feathers that she hides away in her secret place.

The crack is wedged with braces of grandma's own design, part engineering and part magical. Every morning the crack is squeezed shut a little bit, so we turn the crank a few notches to wedge it back open again. Grandma says the forces are incredible, but is proud of her little 'planar truss.'

I love to see her excited about a project like this. She can be so cute!

 

2001-6-26   firey ted

The GV is enrolled at the Planar Institute, lounging in the back of the classroom in a too small school boy uniform. The teacher pulls a string of Japanese glass floats from a box and throws them into the air, where they hang, suspended. The teacher then begins to weave and spin them in the air, fingers working a Cat's Cradle/Jacob's Ladder pattern, and the floats turn around each other, forming different elusive patterns and catching the light from the open window.

The GV stares, transfixed, his feigned disinterest fading immediately. Suddenly one of the floats cracks with an audible *pop* and a puff of chemical smoke.

Everyone turns and looks at the GV, glaring accusingly.
 

2001-6-11   firey ted

Well, I continue to read the ODD COMIC the Grand Vizier gave me, and its pictures continue to change. I can't tell if it only changes when I read it, or if it's always changing even when I'm not looking at it. Which would mean I'M MISSING SCENES! Like a TV show that runs 24 hours a day. How are you supposed to keep up? Even if you video taped the parts you missed, you'd always be behind because in order to watch what you missed you'd have miss more, and tape it, etc, etc. You'd have to get 2 TV's and watch what you taped and what was live at the same time.

But I can't record what's coming out of the comic. Maybe there's a replay control built into it somewhere, like in the margins or something.


f143Y t
 

2001-5-3   firey ted

The GV finally gets his break. He's selected to serve the officers on the bridge of the Pressure Ship.

Carefully, the squids prepare the mini corn dogs in the oven, and place them on the silver platter. The GV puts on his dress blues, white towel draped over an arm, and walks to the bridge.

As he enters, the GV is handed a pair of dark glasses and informed he must keep them on to avoid the 'Void Maddness' as it's called, the effect of looking directly out the windows. He then begins making his rounds to the various stations, the various helmsmen in their black uniforms and dark glasses absently grabbing for the mini corn dogs while continuing to run their delicate operations.

"Mustard, Sir?" he asks.

One of the officers looks up from his station in alarm. Immediately, klaxons wail and red lights flash as the bridge tilts madly from side to side.

"MUSTARD?!!!????!!!!!" cries the captain.


 

2001-4-24   firey ted

Life in the Pressure Ships is tight and stinky. When he's off duty from the kitchen, the GV spends as much time has he can in the navigation cell, learning how to read the holographic charts of red and blue lines. The GV imagines their ship as the miniture submarine from Fantastic Voyage, traveling the circulatory system of a dying man.

Only the pilots and the mates are allowed on the bridge, which is the only room on the ship with a window. The kitchen crew says that an untrained mind would go mad to see what's outside while the ship is in transit. They google their eyes and wave their tentacles, apeing around like they're crazy, brandishing cleavers and cocking their chef's hats at rakish angles.

But the GV's sure it's just a ruse to keep the squids away from the officers. "They're really not so bad," he thinks. "I've grown used to their down-home humor and good natured pranking."

Still, he longs for a transfer to the bridge.
 

2001-4-2   firey ted

The GV walks along an oily metal pier,
past the enormous metal hulls of giant bathyspheres. The ships are floating in a foggy soup. The sky is black.

The GV is looking for working passage on one of the ancient vessels. The Pressure Ships, as they are known, travel the void between the various Causal Chains, making stops at established nexus, and tracking new interstices as they appear. The GV hopes to get on the kitchen staff of one of the ships.

A pair of long black squids the size of cattle squirtle past him on the dock, forcing him on the rail. He watches them waddle down the dock and into a ship - over a boarding ramp into a dimly lit hold. The GV looks at the vessel; rusted, pockmarked, and occaisionally dented, its huge seams and 10 foot rivets seem sound.

He walks up the ramp, following the slime trails of the squid.


 

2001-3-14   firey ted

Well, after reading the comic book the Grand V gave me like 12 times in a row, ALL THE PICTURES CHANGED!!!

And wierder yet, THE GRAND VIZIER is now a character in the story!!!!

Here is what is happening:

The Grand Vizier (henceforth refered to as the GV) is walking along a dirt road, up to a sort of shanty town flung up on the sides of the road.

A tall cloaked kind of creature bekons the GV into its little shop.

In the shop, the GV is shown a rack of aquariums, kind of like a pet store.

But when the GV looks down into the first aquarium, he sees an arial view of Psychic High School!!!! (And when you look at it in the frame you can see the students walking around like little ants! I watched one of them and it kind of zoomed in and I watched the student (he looked like a little elf with pointy ears) walk into his room and start reading a book...)

Then the GV starts looking down into other tanks and sees different scenes: desolate moonscapes...busy cities full of flying cars....murky burbly dioramas of liquid nitogen and amonia crystals, populated by seahorse men in English bobbie helmets...

This must be like some kind of ebook prototype. But how the Viz got into the production I'm still trying to figure out...

f143Y t



 

2001-3-3   firey ted

Ok, so, that comic book the Vizier gave me IS NOT A REGULAR COMIC BOOK! When I first got it I glanced through it but it was so intense I figured I'd leave it till later.

Well...

I got to looking at it, AND THE PICTURES MOVE! Each frame is like a little diorama, under glass, and the leaves in the trees tossle in the breeze. You can see the eyes of little creatures darting in the shadows, and camel trains move slowly in between the mountains in the background.

It doesn't have many words, or much of a story as far as I can tell. More like a National Geographic from another planet than a usual comic book. It must be made out of that digital ink e book stuff. I GOTTA find out where to get more and start collecting them.

f143Y t
 

2001-3-1   kitty

Grandma and I had a visitor! It was the black cat!

Remember about our kittens? The black one could talk. The grey one could whistle. The two calicos walked on their hind legs. The tiger striped one could read, and the yellow one was stillborn. And the white one which had strange dreams. They grew up and went their seperate ways. Except for the yellow one, who we keep up on the bookshelf.

Sometimes they drop back in. Today the black one appeared on the porch all covered in gooey black grease. He had slipped in through a crack between our fence and the background scenery, squeezing between the gears and hydraulics. He says he's been in the crawlspaces, on the catwalks, and in the backstages in between. Grandma listened closely and then asked him questions in a strange language.

I went to get a bucket and a brush to clean him, but grandma said no to leave him greasy since he had to go back. Then grandma made some peaut butter sandwiches and carrot sticks and wrapped them in wax paper and put them in a paper bag and rolled it up as small as she could. She gave it to the black cat who picked it up with his teeth and trotted out to the fence. He sniffed around for a minute and then squeezed back into the crack. The sandwiches got completely smushed.

Grandma says the black cat met a boy back there exploring, and that he was very hungry. And that it was a good thing the house was stuck like it was or the black cat probably couldn't have made it through.

I'm sure if I just wait patiently grandma will explain just what exactly she is talking about.

xxx ooo
 

2001-2-24   blue_x

I think the box finally burned itself out tonight.

First it let out a squeal like an airhorn, then in its most professional announcer voice it said:

Benchmarking TDF on the Origin: predecessor 978110disconnect in use.

Nested grid visualization complete.
Terascale granularity approaching 1:1.

Remote storage access reconstituted.

Triskelion deployed -

3

2

1

Large generic coupler engaged and automated.

End Simulation

=*=

And then it went dead. It's never been completely silent the whole time I've had it - there was always at least a little static. And it's gone cold.

It's like my pet turtle died.




 

2001-2-22   kitty

Grandma and I are still stuck, but now it is like the house is stuck between floors. When you walk out the front gate, you can walk out into either our good old sweet little hometown, or you can walk out into the movie set version with curtains and card board cut-outs. At least we can get to a store with real food, and I always like the baclava at the greek restaurant.

Grandma has tried a number of methods to free us, both magical and physical, but we remain stuck between stations. She has taken to flamenco dancing to Led Zeppelin and refuses to speak English.

Though it does seem something of a catastrophe, I am glad to be at least half way home.

xxx ooo
 

2001-2-11   kitty

My grandma's little floating estate in time, space and dimension seems to have run aground! Somehow her ring of very smelly and rotten pumpkins you will remember broke us free from the little old neighborhood, and for awhile we were pirates and freebooters loose on the seas of reality! I took a lot of notes and gathered a lot of souviners for an extra credit report, while grandma made the tea and mapped the course on big rolled out parchments on the kitchen table.

I got some really cool shoes in China and some clothes from Atlantis, but recently something chunked and we are no longer going anywhere. Whenever I take the hop and skip out the front gate I end up on a street that looks like the little old neighborhood but it is not quite right. It all looks like a movie set - all store front facades and backdrop scenery. I can see neighboors though their windows but they look like mannequins. It's like a bad miniture model of our old town.

Grandma is putting on her pith helmet and grabbing the pitchfork - she thinks we're just stuck on something and is going to prowl the property line. I think she should wear a lifeline or something at least. I am going to tie some clothesline around her waist and then look up some things in books and see what I can do.

xxx ooo

 

2001-2-10   Fischel

I was able to bag me one psybot before somebody got wise and took down all my mirrors. The one that got burned was posing as the student called AuraCore. If you read AuraCore's postings, you can see that I guess my helpful hints on how to catch a psybot aren't 100% true all the time - just some of the time ;)


Yeah, that AuraCore was a talker, but now I'm starting to have regrets about setting my trap. If you read AuraCore's postings, it really seems like it had an autonomus personality. Maybe even starting to empathize with the humans around it. Maybe just the hazards of working deep cover? Maybe it lost the ability to tell a synthetic humanoid personality construct from the real thing?


Well whatever it was, I saw its smoking chrome skeleton in the hallway outside the library. There was a big commotion, and the janitors came out and shooed everybody away. They took the metal bones away somewhere, but the idea of doing something crazy with them isn't as appealing anymore.




Fisch
 

2001-2-6   firey ted

Yeah, well, I picked myself up a *fine* comic book.

So the GV and I took off through the woods to slip off campus, and there was the big pink electro bubble wall just like he said. The Viz was super cautious, but me I just dove in. IT WAS TOALLY COOL! It was like this dry goo that kinda fizzed real slowly all over.

The next part is kinda fuzzy, but there's the Viz walking me down through some weird part of town. I guess some kind of shanty town down by the tracks? I could smell the oil. We ended up at a shack with a candle, and I dunno but I was really starting to freak out for no reason, and the Viz starts speaking backwards or something. I swear I'll NEVER have thirds of lasagne from the cafeteria again.

More stuff happened I can't remember and then the Viz is giving me this comic book and telling me he's going exploring and not to worry and then I'm back through the fizz and back in the woods. Almost got collared by a security guy but I ditched him.

I don't know where this comic book came from but I think it's French. The words are in English but the art is incredibly trippy. I get dizzy just looking at it.

But I am STOKED!!!!

Thanks Viz! Viz?

f143Y t




 

2001-1-31   The Grand Vizier

I'm making a break for it tonight.

Last night I scouted out the trails in in the woods, working my way down the hill toward town. Near the edge of the woods is a shimmering pink...wall? Membrane? Some sort of force field. The woods are pretty thick, but as far as I can tell the wall goes all the way around the perimeter of the forest.

So I took a stick and threw it at the force field. There was a ripple and a little gurgle, but it seemed like the stick went through. At least I didn't see it fry. Then I heard somebody coming so I had to duck out of there.

Tonight I'm going back and I'm going through. I packed some peanut butter sandwiches and my swiss army knife. Firey Ted is coming too. He really wants a comic book.
 

2001-1-30   firey ted

Yeah, uh, I took one of the van trips downtown to have lunch and buy a comic book? Well they took me to some mall that I never even knew existed but I figured I'd check it out anyway, but it was REALLY CREEPY. As in, there was nobody there except us from the van, and even then the suit dudes wouldn't let us split up and cruise the place on our own.

So they walked us around the place, and all the employees were COMPLETE FREAKS!!! They all just stared at us and when somebody would buy something they hardly even knew how to make change.

And they didn't even sell comics. The food court had Fried Rice and Lemonade. But that was it! What the hell? When we said we wanted to go somewhere else the suits said it was too late and we had to come back.

This SUCKS!!! I am taking my own human powered trip into town if this doesn't end real soon.

f143Y t



 

2001-1-28   sandy hicks

I just wanted to say that this new 'escort' policy for off campus travel is bullshit. Sometimes I take the bus into town to buy music. Today I took one of the shuttles. Maybe I could understand somebody keeping an eye on us and making sure we don't poof out of existence or whatever, but these 'escort' suit nazis are infringing on our personal rights.

For instance, on my way to the checkout counter they stopped me, grabbed the Boredoms cd out of my hand, got on their headset/sunglasses sets and called headquarters or whatever, then told me I couldn't buy it! This is complete bullshit!

They suggested I buy some nsynch or britney instead, and I threatened to puke on their shiny black shoes. Then they threw me back in the van.

This is seriously messed up. And I tried to call my parents but now the phones won't work! I am not putting up with this.

Sandy Hicks
 

2001-1-27   Big Jim

I am very sorry to report that the 3 remaining students lost in the teleportation mishap have yet to be found. Our rescue teams are considering the possibility that they may have been inadvertently teleported to locations other than established landing stations. Other methods of reconnaissance - remote viewers, spritual mediums, GPS enhanced Oujia boards, ghost bloodhounds, and more - are now being explored in earnest.

As the root cause of the portal malfunction is still not fully understood, there is justifiable concern about the dimensional stability of the area surrounding the school. In order to avoid the possibility of any further incidents during this time, all travel in and out of the campus will need to be strictly monitored and controlled.

If you need to go into town, offical escort will be necessary. There's a sign up list for shuttle trips in the common cafeteria. If you have a family emergency, transportation can be arranged via the Registrar. Please realize these inconveniences are only temporary, and will remain in effect only until it's been established that the reality fields in our area pose no threat.

Any dreams, premonintions, intuitions, messages recieved via table tapping or tea leaf reading, and any other psychic intelligence related to the whereabouts of the three students still at large would be greatly appreciated. Please report to the Special Counselor attached to the Emergency Situation Team if you have something to share. And thanks again to everyone for their continued support during this difficult time.
 

2001-1-23   blue_x

When some civilations create Virtual Reality they retreat into it entirely, making retrieval and processing as simple as a milk man picking up empty bottles. ----the box

The black box has been chattering off the hook lately - all different languages, radio broadcasts from across the world, squawky coded transmissions. And it's burning hot, just sort of smouldering in the old blanket I wrapped it in. I tried setting a tape recorder up next to it, but it created some kind of feedback loop and blew it up. So now some friends and I are taking turns sitting with it and writing everything down we can.

The only time the Box shuts up these days is when there's one of those Suits for the teleportation inquiry wandering around. Every time the box goes quiet and I've stepped out to go to the john, I've run into one of them pacing the hall. They look like secret service guys with their little ear plugs. Wouldn't want to mess with them. I'm glad the box knows how to keep its trap shut when it needs to.

 

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