Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 230. Who are Cloak and Dagger in Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 230. Who are Cloak and Dagger in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

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  Hi guys, it's Megan from Vigilante Vibes and today I'm
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  here with another character breakdown and it's actually 2
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  characters that I think do not get talked about enough.
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  Today we're going to talk about Cloak and Dagger.
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  They both first appeared in Peter Parker, The Spectacular
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  Spider Man and Number 64 in December of 1981, and they were
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  created by Bill Mantlow and Ed Hannigan.
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  Tyrone Johnson grew up poor in South Boston.
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  He was a smart kid, but he had a severe stutter that made life
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  very, very tough. His best friend, Billy, always
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  had his back. When Ty was 17, the two of them
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  witnessed A robbery that ended with a store clerk being shot
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  and killed. The robbers ran, and so did
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  Billy. Scared that he and Ty would get
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  blamed, a cop ordered Billy to stop.
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  Ty desperately tried to explain that Billy was innocent, but his
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  stutter wouldn't let him get the words out.
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  The officer shot Billy dead. Feeling guilty and terrified of
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  the police, Ty ran away to New York City.
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  When he got to Manhattan's Port Authority, he was broke and
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  desperate enough to consider robbing a well dressed runaway
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  girl named Tandy Bowen. But before he could even act,
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  someone else snatched her purse. Ty instinctively chased the
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  thief down, got the purse back, and returned it.
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  Tandy thanked him, bought him food and the two quickly bonded.
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  Tandy was 16 and from Shaker Heights, OH, a wealthy Cleveland
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  suburb. Her mother, Melissa, was a
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  famous self absorbed supermodel who'd made a fortune from her
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  career and her ex-husband State. Tandy's father had left for
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  India chasing spiritual rebirth and her stepfather Phillip was
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  kind. He was kind, but Tandy never got
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  over the feeling of being abandoned.
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  Her mom barely paid attention to her, and when an older boy she
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  cared about left for college, she felt completely alone yet
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  again. So she ran away to New York,
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  where Ty saved her. Not long after meeting, Tandy
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  accepted shelter from some shady men.
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  Ty, very suspicious, went along to protect her.
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  The teens were kidnapped and handed over to a criminal
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  chemist named Simon Marshall, who was testing a new synthetic
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  heroin for Silvermane and the Maggia on runaway kids, most of
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  whom had died. Ty and Tandy survived the
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  injections and escaped. The drug did trigger their
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  hidden mutant abilities, so there's that.
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  I'm not saying to do drugs to get your mutant abilities out,
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  but like, it worked for them. But also don't.
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  Tai was swallowed by living darkness and developed a
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  constant gnawing hunger that only eased near Tandy, who now
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  glowed with a radiant light. Using a makeshift cloak to hide
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  his shadowy form, Tai began pulling Marshall's thugs into
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  his Dark Force dimension while Tandy hurled blades of pure
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  light. They took the names Cloak and
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  Dagger and declared war on drug dealers while helping runaway
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  kids. Later, they learned a demon
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  named Despair had manipulated the events that led to their
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  transformation. They haunted down and killed
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  Simon Marshall and went after Silvermane 2, even fighting his
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  Cyborg form along the way. They first crossed paths with
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  Spider Man. They teamed up with him to stop
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  the Punisher from killing the Kingpin.
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  Drug dealers later retaliated by kidnapping members of the New
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  Mutants and experimenting on them with similar drugs.
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  For a time, Cloak and Dagger lost their powers to Sunspot and
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  Wolfsbane, but eventually got them back and helped rescue the
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  team, though they declined an offer to join Xavier School.
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  Over the years they faced a wild mix of enemies.
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  Doctor Doom, the Beyonder, which was I believe during Secret Wars
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  to Mephisto, Thanos and many others.
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  Cloak even played a role in the Infinity Gauntlet saga, at one
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  point pulling Thanos into the Dark Force Dimension, only to be
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  killed when Thanos blasted his way out.
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  He was later restored when reality was reset, though most
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  heroes did not remember it, including Cloak.
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  They often lived in churches, supported by sympathetic priests
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  and friends. Ty struggled constantly with his
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  hunger and self-control, sometimes running off when he
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  felt like he was a danger. Tandy, while devoted to him,
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  occasionally wanted more out of life.
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  She briefly performed with Euro Cirque as Lady Light and later
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  joined the New Warriors for a short time.
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  They teamed up with heroes like Spider Man's Captain America,
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  Black Cat, Iron Fist, Venom, and others to stop Carnage's killing
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  spree. Dagger was seemingly murdered by
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  Shriek while saving Spider Man, but it turned out she was just
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  gravely injured and recovering inside of Cloak's shroud.
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  She ultimately helped break apart the Carnage family when Ty
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  lost control of his hunger and started consuming criminals
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  indiscriminately, even minor offenders he left handy while
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  searching for him. She teamed up with Black Widow
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  and later Daredevil. She joined the Marvel Knights,
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  working with heroes like Shang Chi, Luke Cage, Moonlight, and
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  Daredevil, and grew especially close to Natasha Romanoff.
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  Doctor Strange eventually revealed that Ty had been
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  possessed by Nightmare. Tandy temporarily absorbed
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  Cloak's powers to free everyone trapped inside of him for a
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  while. Black Widow let them stay at her
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  apartment, which was attacked by a rogue Nick Fury life model
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  decoy. Cloak and Dagger agreed to get
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  The Avengers to help, but Alex Wilder betrayed the team and the
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  Pride had Ty and Tandy's memories of the Runaways erased.
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  Later, Cloak was framed by an imposter using mutant growth
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  hormone to mimic his powers and attack Dagger.
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  With help from the New Avengers and the Runaways, Ty cleared his
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  name. During Civil War, Cloak and
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  Dagger sided with Captain America against the Superhuman
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  Registration Act Cloak was tranquilized by SHIELD while
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  teleporting Caps team into what turned out to be an Iron Man
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  trap. Dagger was blasted by a Thor
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  clone. Both were imprisoned in the
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  Negative Zone until Hulkling freed them, leading them to the
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  final battle in Times Square. They continued working with
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  various heroes like Luke Cage once called on Cloak to help
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  with the new Avengers infiltrate Stark Tower.
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  Later, Norman Osborne approached them and Columbia while they
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  were burning drug fields, offering them a place on his new
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  X-Men team. He promised they could fight
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  drugs globally without police interference.
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  Tandy agreed. Ty was hesitant.
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  They joined Osborne's Dark X-Men and fought protesting mutants
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  like Hellion and Sunspot. But after Emma Frost and they
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  more betrayed Osborne, Emma offered Cloak and Dagger a
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  chance to join the real X-Men as they prepared to leave the US.
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  And ever since then we've only really gotten Cloak and Dagger
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  in the Age of Revelation event. Which I guess since it was a
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  time travel thing it doesn't really count I guess.
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  But they had one of the best stories of the event.
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  So if you have not checked out Cloak or Dagger, it's literally
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  called Cloak or Dagger. You absolutely should all right,
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  so that's a breakdown of their story.
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  Now the question is what can they actually do?
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  Because we do. I did go into a little bit about
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  their powers, but I want to get into the nitty gritty of it all.
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  So daggers powers include light daggers, which is, you know,
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  like literal light daggers. They're about 6 inch little
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  light daggers that she can throw from her fingertips.
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  Living light detoxification. Tandy's energy can also purge a
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  person, removing them from their toxins, drugs, all that living
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  light manipulation. Non living objects are
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  unaffected by her daggers, so sometimes Tandy can redirect the
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  daggers after they ricochet, other times the daggers are
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  dispersed if they hit a non living thing.
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  Cloak's powers include a Dark Force conduit, which Cloak's
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  body is a portal to the Dark Force dimension, a world of
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  strange Ebony energy. Dark Force Channeling Cloak can
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  channel the Dark Force to create a field of darkness and his
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  general vicinity, usually using his cloak as a focal point to
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  manipulate that his darkness, though it can spread well beyond
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  the confines of his cloak. Dark Force Teleportation.
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  He can teleport by entering the Dark Force dimension.
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  Dark first. Intangibility as cloak Tyrone is
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  usually intangible, though he can solidify through an act of
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  will or by absorbing enough light to saturate his form
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  temporarily and also his strength level.
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  His Tyrone strength has been enhanced to an unknown degree,
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  but it is enough to allow him to lift up to twice his body
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  weight. So that is my episode about
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  Cloak and Dagger. I think we deserve so much more
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  of them because they're a great pair of characters.
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  They are excellent. So yeah, this is me manifesting
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  more Cloak and Dagger in Marvel Comics.
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  And someday to get Cloak and Dagger in live action.
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  Besides, their show that was, it wasn't bad, I don't know it was
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  all right. So anyways, with that being
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  said, be sure to like and subscribe.
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  You can find me everywhere by looking for vigilante vibes, and
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  if you have a character you want to be broken down, let me know
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  in the comments. With that being said, have a
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  marvelous day.