What Happened After Connor Approached the Home With the Storked Baby

A YA novel by Neal Shusterman. A long time before the book started, in that location was a war called the Heartland War between the pro-life and pro-pick sides. The government compromised by making abortion illegal every bit a baby, but from the ages of 13-18, children can be "unwound", which is when all their body parts are donated to other people. Connor, a troublemaker from Akron, Ohio, is going to exist unwound. He decides to run away and hitches a ride with a truck driver. His parents find him and he escapes the "juvie cops", or police who specialize in catching runaway "unwinds," and runs into Risa and Lev. Risa has been consigned to unwinding because, at a Country Home, or StaHo, her piano skills were non good enough and they needed to cut costs. Lev is a "tithe" -the 10th child of a rich, religious family who gives 10 percent of everything. Brought together by take a chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-state journeying, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they tin can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can't exist harmed — simply when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted past a earth gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

A sequel, chosen UnWholly, was released on August 28, 2012. A third novel, UnSouled, was released in 2013. The conclusion to the series, UnDivided, was released in 2014. A novel with short stories from the universe, UnBound, was released in 2015.

An novella, called UnStrung has also been released as an e-book. It tells the story nearly how Lev became a clapper.

Constantin Films has the rights to the movie, though it'southward been trapped in Evolution Hell for quite some time.

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Unwind provides examples of:

• 555: The Tyler Walker Foundation.
• AB Negative: Roland'southward got information technology. A shortage of AB- blood is 1 of the reasons he was given for his quick unwinding.
• A Appointment with Rosie Palms: Obviously Connor once hallucinated Roland's tattoo telling him to "Spank the monkey with your own damn hand."
• All Your Base of operations Are Belong to Us: The Graveyard in UnWholly.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Information technology's quite possible, though never fully confirmed, that yous're yet live after being unwound. This is, in fact, the entire point.
  • If not all Unwinds, then certainly Tyler, the Unwind who is about 1/eight of CyFi's brain, though that'due south an atypical case. Withal, Tyler is definitely conscious to a degree, and what'southward worse, doesn't even know he'south been unwound. Not simply that, but CyFi did non receive a part of Tyler's brain that uses words, and is trapped, unable to call up using words.
  • The procedure of unwinding itself is a lot similar this. The procedure is finally shared with the reader from Roland's indicate of view as he's being unwound. The person feels no pain, but is fully conscious for the unabridged procedure. Roland's thoughts get progressively simpler until all that'southward left is an ellipsis.
• Arc Words: "Somebody else'south problem"
• Attempted Rape
  • A parts pirate has unsavory intentions for Risa across selling her trunk parts. And then she gets him to impale himself on a pitchfork.
  • She too takes on three would-be rapists in an alley in Omaha. Ouch.
• Author Vocabulary Agenda: Neal Shusterman really likes the term 'boeuf'.
• Brute and Beauty: Cam and Risa. Although he's actually quite attractive, and one time people become used to the idea of him many cease to see him equally monstrous.
• Conventionalities Makes You Stupid: Subverted. At first the novel seems it's going in that direction, but Lev's one-time pastor, Dan, is much less dogmatic than the remainder.
• Better to Die than Be Killed
  • Hayden and his techies to a man choose to suffocate in the burning heat of the ComBom rather than plow themselves into the Juvies to be unwound.
  • Starkey begging Connor to strangle him and then that even if he'due south harvested, he tin never be unwound.
  • Connor also wonders if the ostrich he hit was trying to end it on his own terms.
• Betty and Veronica: Cam and Connor for Risa. Going by personality, hot-tempered ex-delinquent Connor is the Veronica and charming, loyal Cam is the Betty. However, Connor is likewise a Humble Hero who's known Risa longer and has much more than history with her, while Cam is a constructed human existence (oft exotified by Risa and others) with some Yandere tendencies.

  "You lot have visitors," Sonia tells her.

  The look on [Risa's] confront is as well guarded to exist hopeful. "What sort of visitors?"

  Sonia smiles wickedly. "The angel and the devil on your shoulders, Risa. I hope you lot're wise enough to know which is which."

• Beware the Squeamish Ones: Lev. Oh my lord, Lev. By the end of the showtime volume, he's eventually driven to become a Clapper, i.eastward. suicide bomber.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Roland's family. His sister was "never right again" after a bodyguard shook her too hard, his stepfather crush up his female parent, and his mother sent him to exist unwound after he crush up his stepfather.
• Bittersweet Ending / Earn Your Happy Ending
• Black Comedy: "He was non a very happy Jack." Accompanied past a literal Rimshot!
• Blatant Lies: "Nothing to worry about." Equally one is being methodically dismembered.
• Trunk Horror: In Unnatural Selection, from UnBound, information technology's revealed that the Dah Zey do human experiments on kids who aren't unwound. Such lovely experiments include a male child with hands on his feet, a daughter with four eyes and four arms, and another male child with ears instead of eyes.
• Intermission Her Heart to Save Her: Connor'southward coldness toward Risa in UnWholly and UnSouled stems first from his disgust at his transplant and fearfulness he'll lose control of Roland's arm and later because he doesn't want her tagging along for his dangerous lifestyle when she's plant refuge elsewhere.
• Break the Cutie: What led to the trope above. Overlaps nastily with Corrupt the Cutie.
• Impenetrable Human Shield
  • Lev takes tranq bullets meant for Connor, letting them both escape.
  • Similarly, Starkey uses Ashley to block tranq bullets during the Graveyard raid.
• Character Proper noun Alias: A pair of clappers innovate themselves as Sid and Nancy.
• Church building Militant: Many of the parents who surrender their children equally "tithes" believe the Bible told them to do information technology.
• Confessional: Cam goes to Confession in UnSouled, but information technology's less for absolution and more to ask the priest whether or not he's a person.
• Crapsaccharine World: The Harvest Camps, being decorated and organized in a manner which are supposed to brand the unwinds experience rubber and at home. Obviously, these are horrific places where the unwinds know their fate, but the Harvest Camps are decorated with pastel colors and many other cheery decorations to cover up their true nature. Risa even describes her experience in that location as "Hell disguised as Sky."
• Create Your Own Villain
  • The juvie cop that Connor tranqs with his ain gun loses his job and his wife and becomes an object of national ridicule, causing him to get a parts pirate and blame Connor for ruining his life. Of form, juvie cops aren't exactly heroes to begin with...
  • Similarly, Argent was of questionable moral standing, but it's his run-in with Connor that gives him the nudge he needs to be a full-fledged villain.
• Roughshod Mercy: The Tashi'ne family decides not to execute Fretwell, instead locking him in a blank cell without human contact, being given merely plenty bread and water, with nothing simply a rope for the rest of his life.
• Darker and Edgier: While Unwind is already pretty dark and edgy, UnWholly keeps the stomach-turning premise and adds more than explicitly sexual content, cursing, and a brand-new illegal organ trade. Then in UnSouled, Connor is forced to smoke pot and Risa calmly stabs a guy with a pitchfork (granted, it was in cocky-defense, but it's still jarring).
• Mortiferous Euphemism: Unwinding is actually having every single body part taken away and used as transplants
• Deprogram: The concern of the Cavenaugh mansion is helping to retrain tithes and then that they no longer want to be unwound.
• Disney Expiry: Connor in Undivided.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Unwinding is a high price to pay for being a "difficult" teenager.
• Dissonant Serenity: Starkey during the Graveyard raid, due to a combination of morphine and adrenaline.
• Divorce Assets Disharmonize: Hayden's parents, who, after several years of courtroom throwdowns, were still fighting over who should get what, including Hayden, before deciding to take him unwound instead. See If I Tin't Have You… below.
• Doorstop Baby: Since nascence control and abortion are illegal, immature mothers oft drib their babies on doorsteps hoping someone finds them. It is chosen being "storked". Connor relates an anecdote virtually a storked infant who kept getting storked from i house to another until it died of exposure.
• Dysfunction Junction: Due to most of the cast beingness homeless children slated past their own families to be stripped down for organs.
• Dystopia: Though one that feels like it still looks and works much similar modern twenty-four hours.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: A few police vehicles take hold of burn down or explode during the raid in UnWholly.
• Even Evil Has Standards
  • While the authorities chases down runaways, they spare the handicapped, regardless of age. Risa takes advantage of this after the explosion at the graveyard paralyzes her. Connor is also spared after the aforementioned explosion costs him an arm and eye, which a nurse replaces with Roland'due south and is given a fake ID to further this.
  • Manifestly fifty-fifty parts pirates refuse to unwind mentally disabled people.
• Evil Versus Evil: Divan and the Dah Zey.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Connor's larger-than-life legend leaves people a little underwhelmed when they realize the Akron AWOL is just a kid, in spite of everything he's done.
• Face up Death with Dignity: How Connor decides to arroyo his unwinding.
• Fantastic Prejudice: Storks and wards are both subjected to significant classism, even at the Graveyard.
• Feghoot: The urban legend of Humphrey Dunfee, whose male parent was one of the almost prominent advocates of unwinding. Said father was all but forced to unwind Humphrey, but completely snapped subsequently, trying to runway down every person who received an organ from Humphrey. Unfortunately for him, "All the king'due south horses and all the male monarch's men couldn't put Humphrey back together again." The story isn't completely imitation, and in the end, all the recipients are gathered for a reunion of sorts.
• Flashback: The Rheinschild's flashbacks provide one of the POVs for UnSouled.
• Folk Hero: Generally deconstructed. Connor, Risa, and Starkey all reach this status throughout the course of the serial, but usually for things they didn't do, or for their morally questionable actions.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: UnSouled follows Lev and Connor'south journey to notice Sonia, Risa's life on the run, Cam working against Proactive Citizenry, Nelson and Argent'due south chase for Connor, Starkey and the Stork Club, and the Rheinschilds' lives after the passage of the Unwind Accord.
• The Fundamentalist: all the (religious) parents who believe in tithing their children.
  • Harbinger Affiliation: No real fundamentalists actually believe in tithing children, at least not as human sacrifices. Sending them to alive with a monastery, perhaps, but not human sacrifice.
• Future Slang: Lots.
  • A "Boeuf" is a young person looking for armed services service.
  • Storked means having a baby left on your doorstep.
  • Kick-AWOL ways running away in lodge to escape Unwinding.
  • "ChanceFolk" is the politically right term for a Native American. SlotMonger is the politically incorrect term.
  • "Umber" is the new give-and-take for African-Americans while "Sienna" is the new give-and-take for Caucasians.
  • "Low cortisol" refers to those with special needs.
• Gilded Cage: Proactive Citizenry holds Cam and Risa captive in incredible luxury and privilege.
• Gilligan Cut: At the end of a chapter, Connor denies that he's a hero and is told that 'a true hero never believes he is i'. The next affiliate begins.

  Mason Starkey knows he is a hero.

• Gollum Made Me Exercise It: Transplanting part of one person's brain into some other person can accept... peculiar effects. Merely ask CyFi.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Bambi tells a guard to go get her a drink. He points out that their h2o store is in the room with him. She tells him to go go her some sushi. He just acts confused. She gives up and tells him to get the hell out.
• Groin Assail

  "The Akron AWOL in my storm cellar. Can't be an blow. It was fated, homo! Fated!"

  "You lot kicked me in the nuts. That wasn't fate; it was your foot."

• Heroic Cede
  • Connor and the Holy of Whollies plan 1 and so that the others tin brand a run for it when the Juvie cops raid the Graveyard.
  • Of the non-lethal kind, Cam allows himself to be taken back into custody at the end of UnSouled then he won't give Risa and Connor abroad to the authorities.
• Human being Cede: All the "tithes", in a way.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Starkey, immobilized on the Lady Lucrezia, has to beg Connor to kill him.
• If I Tin can't Have Y'all…: Hayden's parents. They both decided in the middle of their bitter divorce that they would rather have their son unwound than alive with the fact that the other had won.
• Instant Sedation: Tranq bullets knock an opponent out and so rapidly and effectively that they're called more effective than real bullets.
• It Volition Never Catch On: In a dramatic example, Sonia refuses to believe that parents volition be willing to unwind their children, afterward it'southward legally extended to all teens in improver to ferals.
• Keeping the Handicap: Risa. She could have regained the use of her legs with a replacement spine only since it would come from an unwound teen, she refuses information technology.
• Killed Off for Existent:
  • Roland. And all that "divided land" nonsense aside, you still feel sorry for him as you have to run across the whole procedure in graphic item.
  • Vincent and Mai, who become clappers.
  • In the second book, a clapper kills off Pastor Dan.
  • Trace by the end of UnWholly - he drowns in the Salton Sea after a plane crash.
  • Starkey, by his ain asking.
  • Nelson, unwound without anesthetic.
• Known Merely past Their Nickname: 1 of the Unwinds got the nickname "Emby" (short for oral cavity breather because of his animate problems). Only the Admiral calls him by his real name, Zachary.
• Terminal Kiss: Connor and Risa before he's unwound on the Lady Lucrezia.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: Downplayed when Starkey has to smash the bones in his hand to escape handcuffs so that he can attempt to seize control of the Graveyard.
• Calorie-free Is Not Good: The harvest camps. Betwixt the Pushing Daisies-esque decor (vivid pastel colors on everything, including the surgeons' sunshine yellow scrubs) and the sickening platitudes painted on every wall...it would give even Tim Burton nightmares.
• Line in the Sand: Connor gives the Holy of Whollies the chance to opt out of acting as a lark so that the others can escape the Graveyard. It's noted that it's actually an empty offer, as no 1 tin can have it without seeming cowardly and abandoning their friends.
• Little "No": Risa refusing to play the organ for Divan equally Connor is unwound.
• Love Before First Sight: Cam's infatuation with Risa begins earlier he meets her, when he sees a surveillance photograph and one of the unwinds whose encephalon he received recognizes hers.
• Love Cannot Overcome: Ariana nearly immediately changes her mind about running away with Connor.
• Love Dodecahedron: In the starting time book, Connor may have had something with Ariana before Risa got into the picture; Roland also vies for her attention, only it'southward actually more to rile Connor up. In UnWholly, Cam develops feelings for Risa every bit well, but she doesn't return them. Later, Cam falls in honey with Una, who initially hates him because he was given the hands of her unwound fiancé, Wil.
• Manly Tears: The male person heroes weep, which is understandable given the situations that they're often placed in.
• Meaningful Proper name: Wards of the country, such as Risa, are given the last name of "Ward."
• Medical Horror: Patently.
• Mercy Impale: Connor strangling Starkey earlier he can be unwound.
• Mercy Lead: Nelson gives these to his captures, merely only to foster false hope.
• Messiah Creep
  • Connor gets this over the grade of the serial. In UnWind, he takes over the Graveyard and the intendance of the AWO Ls who live there, simply with no Christ-similar undertones. UnWholly adds betrayal by Starkey, who he had adopted into his inner circle and an attempt to cede himself for his followers. Nigh of UnSouled involves him existence persecuted by Proactive Citizenry and the Juvenile Authority while fostering the burgeoning social move against unwinding. And of grade, UnDivided has his unwind and subsequent "resurrection."
  • Lev to a lesser extent. Not but is he occasionally called 'blond Jesus' in the later on books, he becomes a quasi-religious figure to the rescued tithes at the Cavenaugh Mansion and gets himself shot, planning to sacrifice himself to bring attending to the evils of unwinding. He even gets 'crucified' in the kickoff book!
• Moment Killer: Risa does this to Connor several times in Undivided, near egregiously by bringing upwardly Cam while they cuddle.
• Mood Whiplash
• Near-Rape Feel: Roland begins to forcefulness himself on Risa earlier Connor interrupts. It'southward not clear whether he would take gone through with it if or if it was just a bluff to upset Connor, but information technology's still horrible.
• Dainty Job Breaking It, Hero: Many of Starkey's stork-rescue operations skid into this due to his Revenge Earlier Reason mindset.
• No Name Given: Many of the single-department POV characters.
• Nothing Personal: Risa is consigned to unwinding because of budget cuts at the state children's habitation where she lives.
• Official Couple: Connor and Risa.
• Offing the Offspring
• Oh, Crap!: Many times over. A couple of examples are Lev and Miracolina when Nelson pulls a tranq gun on them and Connor when the Whollies change direction to try to achieve the escape jet.
• Opt Out: Lev deciding to stay with the Tashi'ne family instead of going on to Akron.
• Organ Theft: Unwinding is essentially this taken Up to 11. The worst part is that information technology's legal and regime-sanctioned. And then there's the germination of parts pirates in UnWholly.
• Our Hero Is Dead: Lev getting shot at the Statue of Liberty.
• Outlaw Couple: Connor and Risa eventually become this, although the crimes they commit are always almost doing the correct affair even if information technology'due south illegal.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Suggestion 73 involves legalizing the unwinding of developed criminals.
• Perp Walk
  • Connor is paraded effectually Happy Jack when he arrives in lodge to humiliate him and intermission the spirits of the kids already there. It galvanizes them instead.
  • Fretwell too gets one when he's brought back to the reservation.
• Ragtag Agglomeration of Misfits: Most of the heroes are intermittently-homeless teenage criminals. Merely the good kind.
• Refuge in Audacity: The idea of unwinding itself is an accidental case. It was suggested in an attempt to shock anybody into ending the war — simply coincidentally, medical technology was released at about the same fourth dimension that enabled the use of 100% of a donated body, and the idea was implemented shortly thereafter.
• Retcon: Fairly minor, but the first book has a mention of Florida StaHo xviii. In the second book, an AWOL boy points out that the Land Homes in Florida are all named after flowers instead (his was called Magnolia.)
• Revenge Before Reason: Starkey burns downward the firm of parents who attempt to accept their storked children unwound, which is what finally prompts the Juvenile Authority to take the Graveyard out.
• Risking the King: Connor reassures another child that he'll exist fighting right alongside the rest of them. Another boy points out that in chess, you don't put your male monarch on the frontline, but Connor doesn't care.
• The Rival: Roland, Starkey, and Cam all play this part to Connor in some mode throughout the series.
• Room 101: The room where unwinding happens is well-nigh one of these, save for the fact that everyone knows what goes in the "chop shop."
• Sadistic Choice: In UnWholly, Risa is given the pick to publicly endorse unwinding, or see the Graveyard and all the unwinds who alive at that place taken downwardly.
• 2d American Ceremonious War: In the backstoryt, a Second American Civil War happens over abortion. It ends with the compromise allowing "unwinding" that sets up the main plot.
• Undercover Examination of Character: Grace offers to give the printer away for free to encounter if the company volition accept reward of her, thereby testing its integrity and the likelihood that it will bury the technology.
• Ship Tease: Hayden and Bam in UnDivided.
• Shirtless Scene: Cam engineers a few for Risa's do good.
• Shout-Out: CyFi's "One-time Umber patois" includes the phrase "I pity the foo'," Catchphrase of B.A. Barracus from The A-Team. Lampshaded when Lev says that a lot of CyFi's patois probably comes from old Television receiver shows.
  • Apparently Risa has seen Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
• Shut Upward, Hannibal!:

  "The difference between me and you, Connor," Starkey says, still defiant, "is that—"

  "—is that yous're in handcuffs and I'm not. Get him out of here."

• Slow Handclapping: After Lev announces his intention to hunt down the parts pirates that took Wil.
• Someone to Remember Him Past: Starkey invokes this in UnWholly.
• Spiteful Spit: More and more as the series progresses.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: The two clappers in UnSouled.
• Stepford Smiler: The nurse at the "chop shop." Such smiling eyes, ever.
• Suicide Attack: Clappers, who can accident themselves up at whatever time. About the stop they try specifically to blow up the operating room at a harvest camp.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Played with in the second volume with Starkey, a boy who is existence unwound for delinquency (much similar Connor). Ultimately subverted, though. He'south a much worse troublemaker than Connor ever was, not to mention he's perpetually defiant and even takes to militant action and lets Trace die.
• Take a 3rd Option: Lev invokes this.
• Take That!

  At that place'south a theater on the next street playing a revival of Cats, which flesh will probable have to suffer through for the rest of eternity.

• Teenage Wasteland: The Graveyard becomes 1 when Connor takes over for the Admiral. Fear of teenage riots and growing unrest was as well a cistron in the passing of the Unwind Accordance.
• Teens Are Monsters: Horrifically deconstructed in volume two. During the Heartland War, many teens, with their present and time to come lives potentially ruined across repair, took to the streets to protest, and were viciously cutting down by cops armed with newly-invented tranq bullets. The media categorized them as "Feral Teens" and this heavy sensationalization is unsaid to have led to the rushed passage of the Unwind Accords, with the express purpose of eliminating this "Terror Generation," morality be damned.
• Teen Pregnancy: Starkey knocks up a few of his followers in UnSouled.
• Terrorists Without a Cause: Some clappers actually pride themselves on this, claiming to serve no cause just chaos.
• The Large Easy: Silverish and Nelson visit in UnSouled.
• The Chains of Commanding: Connor while running the Graveyard.
• The Domestic dog Bites Dorsum: Nelson is killed by Silver in Undivided in revenge for his betrayal (and for taking half of Silver'south face up).
• Their Beginning Time: Connor and Risa at the end of Undivided, afterward two years of being cockblocked by everything from their ain angst to one of them directly-upwardly dying.
• The Rez: In UnSouled, Connor, Lev, Grace, and eventually Camus spend about of the volume on a "Casino Rez", which has gotten very wealthy over the years and is now practically independent. They hunt for their food and live in luxurious homes that are carved into the walls of a gorge.
• Thanatos Gambit: Connor being unwound, purchased by the admiral, and rewound.
• Championship Drop

  Do yous know what that feels like, Risa? [Cam] wants to ask her. Practice y'all know what it'south like to exist un-souled?

• Together in Expiry: The Rheinschilds.
• Toilet Humor: The "pee in a suitcase" sequence in UnWholly.
• Truthful Companions: Connor, Risa, and Lev.
• Tuckerization: Whenever Neal Shusterman needs a name for a character, he'll depict the graphic symbol on his Facebook page and inquire his fans "Who wants the character to be named after them?" He'll either take the unabridged name of a fan, or combine ii people's kickoff and last names.
• 20 Minutes into the Futurity: Specifically, after "The Heartland War" broke out over the legalization of abortion. Certain electric current cultural references are referred to equally "pre-war", such equally Mr. T and iPods. Biomedical technology seems to have advanced the nearly, including the eponymous Unwinding technique.
• Two Guys and a Daughter
  • Connor, Risa, Lev
  • Roland, Mai, Hayden.
  • Connor, Lev, Grace
  • Connor, Cam, Grace
• Unknown Rival: Invoked by Starkey, who intentionally keeps repose. Connor doesn't realize it until information technology's too late.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Ariana.
• Unspoken Programme Guarantee
  • While Connor and Risa are being chased by an officer.
  • At the terminate of UnWholly, Connor'south program is well-laid out and heroic. Starkey's is selfish and hidden from the audience. Guess how that plays out...
  • Lev's plan to rescue Connor during the battle with the Juvies also follows this rule.
  • The grandest case is Connor'due south Thanatos Gambit.
• Unwitting Pawn: Lev leading Nelson to the Graveyard.
• Walking Transplant: The Unwinds.
• We Will Use WikiWords in the Future: State grouping homes are called StaHo.
• Wham Ending: Volume two, many times over.
• Wham Line: "Dunfee? Your last proper name is Dunfee?"
• What Were You Thinking?: Connor gets this a lot from Risa at offset, and later turns information technology around to shame the mob at the Graveyard.
• Who Needs Enemies?: Starkey working to undermine Connor in UnWholly.
• Would Exist Rude to Say "Death": The state habitation's lawyer admonishes Risa for being "inflammatory" when she refers to being unwound as "dying." He prefers to describe it equally being "alive, just in a divided state."
• Worthy Opponent: Divan says that he respect Connor quite a fleck and would be tempted to let him become...if not for the coin he stands to make.
• You Won't Experience a Matter!: In that location's a sequence where a Walking Transplant on the operating tabular array is notified that he may feel something in his feet, but not to worry. So, a picayune later, he'south told that he may feel something in his legs. This gain far longer than you might await.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/Unwind

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