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Well, it’s Monday so I’m sure you all know what that means-

New chapter!

Well, it has recently. We’ve definitely improved from an 8k chapter every couple months so let’s keep this momentum and continue churning out chapters for you to enjoy.

The chapter isn’t up quite yet- as soon as I finish this I’m tweeting about this update, figuring out a name for the chapter, and posting it- but it will be soon.

Hopefully, I need to get to bed.

I did technically have the rest of the day to do this but I got off of work at midnight and home a bit before one so I figured it was now the 25th and I might as well finish everything up.

Really should have gone over the chapter beforehand because going over all the typos- and I know I’ve still missed a few, which Fuyuiku will point out later in their review- took me like forty minutes and I still have to finish this up here.

Onto the more update-y part of this update.

Chapter 70 was “finished” this afternoon- yesterday afternoon, technically- before my shift which means I have another week to write chapter 71 without worrying about missing deadlines.

Which is fantastic, because I hate having deadlines hanging over my head, even if it has seemed to increase my productivity. Another thing that’s probably helped is the fact that I haven’t played any videogames since, well, whatever update I last talked about playing videogames.

Gimme a sec….

Ah, looks like it was the twenty first. So three days without my first mistress and I’ve managed to finish two chapters – not completely accurate seeing as I got stuck on chapter 69 because of said mistress, but we’ll just ignore that- so I should probably be spending less time with her.

And I really should give her some kind of name too, but that’s not really important right now.

I’ll try to continue resisting her but I can’t guarantee I’ll manage it. With a bit of luck, I can somehow manage to get chapters finished on workdays and use my days off to spend time with her. Not that I have a day off in the next week, but I should be able to manage.

Maybe.

I know I mentioned this in the last update, but on March fourth the site is changing to Read.Eyazahrid.net. It won’t be a huge change, but I will start trying to add more things that aren’t necessarily Sealkeeper but are related on the merit of being Fanfiction. Primarily, I’ll post my old stories here -or at least a link to the files- and I may even post some story ideas I’ve wanted to try but haven’t had the time to start.

Really like that last idea, I might have to just have a page that I update with ideas both big and small to be scattered throughout stories. The only downside to that is I wouldn’t be able to use them now or in future works because they would seem as cool.

Meh, maybe I’ll just leave the ones I came up with but don’t really want. That sounds bad. On second thought, I’ll just post entire story ideas to get your imaginative juices flowing.

And so I don’t forget them.

Hmm, might post some of the stories I’ve worked on that have never seen the light of day, too. There aren’t too many but I just haven’t had time to devote to them. One of you could give them a try or, if enough people express interest in some of them, I might start setting aside some Sealkeeper time to work on those instead.

We’ll see how it goes.

Now, I should have been in bed half an hour ago so I’ll wrap this up here and go post the chapter.

Until I next have your attention,

-Eyazahrid

 

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Taking a break from chapter 70 to update everyone on its progress. Not sure what’s gotten into me but I’ve managed to resist my first mistress yesterday and today- thus far- bringing chapter progress to a nice 40%.

Again, this is for the standard 5k chapters but with how often I’ve been able to post chapter this way- Are we really back to once a week? Fantastic!- I’m definitely able to provide you all with much more Sealkeeper overall.

I’ll try for having a few chapters in reserve before I start going above 5k and who knows, maybe I’ll get to the point where I can start typing out 10k a week without making use of days off.

Yeah, I know, it isn’t likely. A guy can still dream, though.

Chapter 69 is still set to be uploaded on 2/25- you’re nearly there, just hold on a few more days- and all that’s left for it is to go through fixing whatever autocorrect yells at me about and thinking up a name for the chapter. Usually the name is the hardest part, really.

Both of those, however, can be left for 2/25 right before I post it.

With a bit of luck – and a few bursts of inspiration- I should have chapter 70 done- or nearly so- by then and be able to start on chapter 71. I’m going to set a goal to have chapter 72 done by 3/4, which is when i should be posting chapter 70.

Hey, it seems to be working, why risk messing with it?

Not sure how realistic that goal is when I usually have days off soon after posting a chapter and can use them to get a pretty substantial start to the chapter, but we’ll see.

Might have to start staying at work more too, because I sat down before my shift and managed to redeem the early games of March’s Humble Bundle, eat, and get 1k typed up for chapter 70.

At home I’ll spend two hours writing and accomplish a whole 500 words.

it’s probably because I’m too damn comfortable in my room. Really need to set up some sort of office where I’m less tempted by my first mistress, random Youtube videos, and the urge to pace around.

Considering I use a computer to write the story because my handwriting is atrocious, two of those really can’t be avoided.

Perhaps a standing desk would help with the third, though. Might have to look into that.

That should about do it for the update, but what’s better than learning Eyazahrid’s on track with the chapter and is making good progress on the next one?

The chance to read even more from him, of course!

I’ve been meaning to talk about this for a while because it’s something that kind of bugs me but that I’m guilty of too and that’s the proper use of Suffixes.

Inset title here.

–“On The Subject of Suffixes”–

Yeah, that’ll do.

Now, I’m not going to mention which suffixes should be used and which are used incorrectly or anything of that nature- because I think I’ve already established in one of my earlier updates that I’m not super knowledgeable on that subject. What I do know, and something that makes me mentally groan every time I see it, is that removing the Suffix from a name does not mean you like someone less.

It does, in fact, suggest a very close relationship with that person.

Parents might call their children by their given name or a couple might do away with the Suffix- which is unlikely- but that’s the kind of close relation you would need to do so.

I know that I don’t always have my characters use suffixes- a bit too late now, perhaps, but maybe in my next works- which is a pretty common theme for protagonists. Naruto usually doesn’t bother with them, I’m pretty sure Ichigo from Bleach doesn’t use them often, and I think I recall a point in D.Gray-Man where some of the other characters call out Allan Walker on not using them.

Doing so, especially if the person doesn’t believe you to be that close to them, is considered pretty rude so every time I read a Naruto story- and it has actually been a long time, now that I think about it- and you have the classic “Naruto’s gotten over Sakura and she realizes he no longer adds ‘-chan’ to her name” scene I have to shake my head.

Dropping the Suffix would probably have the opposite affect the writers are intending as the greater implied closeness would most likely just piss off young Sakura.

The best way to show a new distance between them- even better than Sakura-san – would be to use her last name as it implies an even greater “lack of closeness”, for lack of a proper term. Greater degree of separation, maybe?

Bah, doesn’t matter.

“Haruno-san” would be the largest distance he could put between them without being rude. If he wanted to be insulting, however, he could just use “Haruno” which, as I understand it, is rather impolite. Not sure why, but if I had to guess it would be refusing to recognize someone as an individual or something.

Regardless, doing so would show any disdain he felt for her- especially good for stories where he hasn’t just gotten over her and moved on but where she’s directly responsible for such- while remaining proper.

Then again, I’ve already mentioned that I fail here too and that most protagonists – or at least young, action protagonists- don’t really care enough to bother with them.

Now, at least, you know. So if you didn’t already, every time you see such a scene now you’ll remember what I’ve said and curse me for ruining it.

You’re welcome.

Of course, there’s a good likelihood you already knew that and so this whole half of the post has been pointless.

That will end my little commentary, so let’s wrap this up.

–

If have made it this far I congratulate you for having so much free time in your day and your prize is knowing that- sometime soon- I will post the HTML files for all my deleted stories on a page here for you to enjoy once more.

I’ve received a couple of requests for some of my older stories, so it would just be easier to have them all readily available for those who liked them. You know, for whatever reason. We try not to judge.

I think with the posting of chapter 70 [3/4, if you’ve already forgotten the plan] I’ll change the subdomain of this blog- if I can figure that out- to Read.Eyazahrid.Net and make those available. Not sure what the best way to do that would be, but it may end up being just a link to view files in a Google Drive folder.

Id’ also like to add an AN to the first chapter so that newcomers have a better idea of what they’re getting into, but we’ll see how much of that I’ll actually get done.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid

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Technically, chapter 69 has just been finished. I mentioned in the last update that I was having some trouble ending one of the scenes and while I finally managed it, well, it takes up the rest of the chapter.

It’s scene two.

I had been planning on about five.

Now, I could continue writing those scenes and just have a larger chapter, but I’m quite liking these quicker updates. It’s going to feel slow because the two scenes are happening within an hour or so but hopefully the fact that it’s been a week and not three months will help alleviate the feeling.

The scenes will still be written of course- I would start tonight but I’ve been spending my free time finishing this chapter and would like to spend the rest of my last day off with my first mistress- but now it’ll just be an early start to chapter 70.

Not sure if that will be Mount and Blade or Skyrim, but either way it should be fun.

Back to the topic you guys actually want to hear about.

Mondays seem to be pretty good luck so far, so chapter 69 will be posted on 2/25. It also happens to be the day my bank clears my paycheck, so that just makes Mondays even better.

I’ll do my best to get progress made on the chapter but I go into work tomorrow- 2/22- and my next day off isn’t until 3/4 so time might be a little scarce between then.

Actually writing that now has me thinking I’d probably be better off just starting the next chapter- just in case- but my mistress has been patiently waiting for me all day and I really don’t want to upset her.

Maybe I can pull myself from her embrace an hour or so before bed and get some work done.

Wish me luck.

If I want any chance of things going to plan I’m going to need to finish this up here.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid

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I had been posting these updates every two or three days but my first mistress needed some attention so I spent the majority of my time this last week playing through Skyrim again and giving Warband a try.

I have no idea how I hadn’t played it yet when it’s such a fantastic game and I’ve owned it for years.

It’s a damn good thing I had a chapter ready to go, yeah?

You’ve probably noticed by now that the chapter’s already posted and there’s a good chance you’ve read it too.

Next chapter’s almost at the 5k mark, I’m just stuck trying to end one of the scenes, so hopefully I can drag myself away from the games long enough to figure that out and start making progress again.

I haven’t received any comments about it so far but I did want to talk about the way I had Tayuya addresses Naruto in this chapter.

Originally I was just going to google “Prince” in Japanese and use that, but the result “Oji” was close to Princess “Ojo” so I did go back to make sure I wasn’t accidentally using the wrong one. Of course, that lead to me actually looking up proper forms of address and I eventually ended up looking at court titles and ranks for the SCA.

Naturally, most Anime/Manga typically keep things much more simple but now that I had the information I just couldn’t bring myself to not use it. I consider myself pretty lucky that I had- on a whim- added the fact that Naruto was more focused on past customs than current ones into the story.

It allowed me to say that these titles were perhaps once used but you don’t see them now because they’ve fallen out of fashion and don’t apply to the current political structure of the world. Which, I guess, it pretty true in reality too.

Then again, I’m not in any way associated with any sort of Japanese court, so maybe they are still used frequently. At least they aren’t used much in the Japanese media I’ve enjoyed over the years.

“Denka” is used as “Highness” so I did make use of the official title “Ō” to differentiate him from a crown prince. In the “Modern” times of the story, the crown prince would just be the Daimyo’s son and would just be known as a prince. Naruto being a “Territorial Prince” means that he’s a ruler in his own right but still answers to someone else. As he’s a Daimyo who has voluntarily placed himself below another Daimyo when he created an alliance I felt that it was more fitting while still letting Orochimaru-and her subordinates- call him a prince.

I may have, in some way, fucked it all up. Feel free to let me know if that’s the case.

I like to make some use of Japanese in the story to keep that connection to its roots but I’m certainly no expert on it.

Or anything, really.

Realized while at work- my break is almost over so I need to finish this quickly- that while I don’t like mentioning reviews in my ANs I can mention them here without artificially inflating the wordcount of my story and scaring everybody off.

With that in mind, two reviews have caught my attention.

First, for those of you now shipping Naruto and Tayuya, the position of captain has been claimed by The Crimson Apocrypher- whether they realize it or not. If you’ve decided to board the H.M.S NaruTayuya you answer to them now.

The next one was from flamingsword108 who suggested Naruto losing his V-card in chapter 69. Really wanted to get that in myself and did consider having he and Tayuya share that but I have decided on something else. It will, however, be happening pretty soon.

Like, within the next three chapters soon if everything goes to plan.

That should just about do it for this update. So far the only feedback I have for the site changes was someone agreeing with me so the subdomain will probably change soon and you may start seeing posts that don’t really have anything to do with Sealkeeper. Hopefully they’ll still be entertaining.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid

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Well, it looks like I’m already due for another update. Don’t actually have a set schedule for these, but every few days feels right, especially when I’ve been writing. This update is here to inform you all that chapter 69 – yes, I did decide to stick to my standard chapter length to increase post frequency- is now 60% of the way to our standard 5k chapter.

This is mainly due to the fact that I’m not going home today- yesterday, technically- and am instead sitting at work waiting to open the store in about an hour and a half. Might get started a bit early depending on when the closing crew completes their tasks.

My shift was going to mean I only got a few hours of sleep but I ended up having to stay a bit late taking care of things and didn’t trust myself to be able to wake up with only three hours of sleep.

I don’t nap, I hibernate.

So I’m sitting here killing time and typing up the next chapter, which means I’m either going to get really ahead over the three days I have off starting tomorrow or I’m going to be able to spend a lot of time with my first mistress.

Eh, who am I kidding? There’s no doubt one of my games will call to me and I’ll binge it for thirty some hours over the next few days. That’s how it usually does.

In other news, I actually have Twitter followers now which is a strange feeling considering I have two tweets and one of them is just me saying I’ve set up a Twitter. About to Tweet about this update being posted, actually.

It feels weird just typing that.

But ignoring my discomfort with social media, we seem to be back on some sort of track and I’m really enjoying the illusion of having shit under control.

Chapter 68 should be posted next Monday [2/18] if all goes to plan and with the way this chapter is going- and with another upcoming three day weekend at the cost of 11 hour shifts- chapter 69 is likely to be posted the Monday after that [2/25].

Think that about does it for this update. Thank you all for reading, reviewing, and listen to me prattle on between chapters. Knowing that there are those of you who would take the time to visit here and become more involved in my writing process has really helped motivate me.

Well, that and the fact that work Wifi is less than stellar.

Seriously though, thank you all. It really does help to see people wanting to know more about what goes on between updates.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid

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Finished a scene yesterday- actually this morning if we want to get technical- that had us above the 5k words mark, so the chapter can be considered “complete”.  Did have some more scenes I had intended to cover and with a few more days until I post 67 without review I’ll continue writing them.

Not sure if they’ll be added to make 68 longer or will simply become the start of chapter 69, but I’ve got time to figure that out. Naturally, I’m already leaning heavily towards smaller, more frequent updates- though you all know how that turned out last time- instead of these 7k-20k word updates after three months.

Sorry.

Well, you’ve got at least two chapters coming up in the next two weeks so whatever gods you’ve been sacrificing to have heard your prayers.

This will probably be the last update here until I post chapter 67 on, erm, Monday? Pretty sure the 11th is Monday. The sad thing is that until I mention that there were updates here between the chapters no one will really know, which means none of these updates on chapter progress will be read until after it’s posted.

Another marvelous example of Eyazahrid efficiency.

Back on track, as this will be the last post here for the next few days make sure you follow me on Twitter @Eyazahrid for brief updates and chapter post notifications.

Feel free to read the other updates too, because one or two of them contained questions I’d like your opinion on.

Then again, I’m pretty sure I added them to the AN of chapter 67, so you could just read it there.

Don’t really have anything more to say here- but seriously, if you think having this blog cover all matters of Eyazahrid fanfiction is a good idea and you have a new subdomain name for it, let me know. Please- so I think we’ll end it here.

Only have a few minutes to start typing up the next scenes before my shift anyway.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid

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Still making progress with chapter 68, now somewhere between 36 and 72% done from a pure word-based standpoint. Nowhere near where I hoped to be for scenes but I may end up splitting it into two chapters if I can’t fit it all into one.

Npcfan hasn’t had free time yet so 67 is still pending and I have a three day weekend – though I probably won’t get too much done today considering I’ve managed a whole 458 words finished my 5pm and am sitting here with a coffee and cheesecake typing this instead of the chapter- so we may have 68 finished before 67 is posted.

As I said a few days ago 67 will be posted by February eleventh if I still haven’t heard from ncpfan, so you can mark that down on your calendars. If 68 is already finished- and I had better have it done by then with three whole days off work- then I’ll post that a week later.

Of course, I just gave Stardew Valley a try and the part of me that’s been missing since I lost the Harvest Moon I had back on the DS has awakened. I’ll try not to get too sucked in.

Yeah, like any of you have any doubt how that will turn out.

I’ll apologize in advance, for the spirit is weak.

We’ll keep this brief and end it here so you can get back to your days and I can get back to my farm- I mean, the chapter.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid

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So, the chapter’s been done since January 28th but ncpfan is currently busy with some things in his personal life and as such hasn’t had a chance to look things over. I’d prefer to have them look it over before posting, but I also know you’re all eagerly awaiting the next chapter. Today marks one week since I sent it and if I don’t hear back from him in another week I’ll just post it for you all to enjoy.

On the plus side, I do have between twenty to thirty percent of the next chapter done already. Who knows, maybe I’ll have that one ready to go before i hear from ncpfan and you can have two chapters back to back.

Fingers are crossed.

Twitter updates start with the posting of the next chapter, so follow me @Eyazahrid and check back regularly to stay in the loop.

Until I next have your attention

–Eyazahrid

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Alright, this probably won’t end up being a daily thing but I happen to have another update to keep you all in the loop. I’d say I made some pretty decent use of my day off [And my time today before work] because while chapter 67 isn’t quite finished it has now grown past 10k words.

Yes, you heard that right.In the twelve days since my last update not only have I reached my 5k minimum for a chapter but have doubled it.

And I’m not done yet.

While I’m sure that probably excites most of you, that also constitutes as the good news.

The bad news is that I don’t have another day off until Friday so I’ll be trying to write in whatever free time I can secure for myself.

The goal is still to have the chapter posted by January 31st but at this point it’s going to require a good helping of luck for me to pull off. Technically I have like four days, but I also have to get it to ncpfan and hope he’s free.

If the gods smile down upon us, I may be able to wrap the chapter up with a scene or two before my shift today- I have about forty minutes – and before I leave tomorrow. That would give us three days in case he’s busy, so hopefully we can pull it off.

If not, well, it’s still a larger chapter a lot sooner than most of you were expecting, so definitely a good thing.

I’m going to start sending out updates on posts here and for chapter progress on Twitter starting with the posting of chapter 67, so feel free to follow me @Eyazahrid if you want some simple updates without looking here.

Should you enjoy these chapterless ANs you’re still in luck because I’ll announce posts I make here too so you can immerse yourself in whatever inane specifics I post about how the chapter’s coming.

That should about do it for now.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid

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While the chapter isn’t finished yet, I’m sure many of those patiently waiting for chapter 67 will be happy to know I’m about halfway done with it. A lot of people- ncpfan included- are concerned with the speed of the story so I’m trying to fit all the ‘current’ events into this one and start on some very minor timeskips [Couple days to a few weeks] so that we’re back on track and making progress again.

That should mean this chapter ends up being longer but we’ll see. Current goal is to have this finished in the next day or so because I’d like to post by the end of the month. That would mean two posts in one month, which is definitely an improvement to my recent abominable update rate.

Remember back when I could crank out a chapter a week? I do. Gods above I miss having so few responsibilities.

Well, that’s pretty much all I wanted to say here for updates. We’ll just have to see if I can finish this quick enough for ncpfan to look it over. Considering I started writing this at 11:55 PM on 1/25 and wont’ even have this posted until 1/26, well, it’s a damn good thing I have tomorrow off, isn’t it?

Hopefully I can make good use of that day and stay focused enough to finish the chapter, or at least a majority of it.

I do want to try making updates like this more frequent so you know what’s going on in the long period of silence between my updates but I’m sure you’d all appreciate more frequent updates a whole lot more.

I’ll try to balance them.

Also, right before I go into this next section I’ll share a quick idea I had for this blog of mine. Originally I was just going to use it for Sealkeeper [hence the name] but FanFiction is a large part of my life that probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Because of that, I was considering having a FanFiction blog to cover all my work and thoughts including Sealkeeper.

If it’s not too much trouble, I would like to hear from you [Feel free to tack it to the end of a review of chapter 67] whether you’d prefer I change this blog to cover all my Fanfiction [Which would involve me changing the name and may result in more frequent posts] or if you’d rather I just make a new one [I think I’ve got it down at this point, only have like four of the damn things sitting around collecting internet dust.].

Now, that’s the end of the update, so if that’s all you came for you’re good to go. What follows is a rant I typed up in response to a review on chapter 66 because it was really bugging me. Technically I got it off my chest then and I was just going to add it to the next chapter so everyone could see it but I’ve since thought better of it. People read the story for the story and while people have agreed with some of my other rants and opinions in my ANs this feels like a more appropriate place for them.

It’s kind of why this page exists after all, isn’t it?

So, after this segment is the rant I typed up right before going to bed which I haven’t touched since. There are probably points I could better make or ways I could improve the word choice but not only does spending time on it detract from time I could be working on chapter 67 but it goes from being a rant to a valid argument and I don’t care enough to refine it. Still, I did take the time to write it- which did make me feel a lot better, actually- so I might as well post it, yeah?

—The Rant—

To “blight23”, I must thank you for such a witty remark. Truly, to make comments about not using elements of other languages when writing in English was a superb show of humor. The delectable irony was not lost to me, I assure you.

Assuming, that is, it was intended.

I have a feeling it was not.

Better yet, you have disabled Private Messaging. I had a good laugh at that. It’s like you already know people will call you out on your comments. Oh, this is written in English, you can’t use Japanese terms.

I can, I did, I will continue to do so as I please with my story. What a strange concept. And the fact that I expect at least some of my readers to possibly have an iota of familiarity with the language the series I’m writing about is originally in? I don’t find it that far fetched.

Perhaps you enjoy things dubbed, but I do not. Add to that the fact that I’m more of a Manga man myself, where they do, in fact, mix the English translation with Japanese terms to preserve the feeling of the medium and you’ll find that I really don’t care that you dislike the fact that I use a small smattering of Japanese within my fanfic about fucking ninjas.

Next you’ll tell me to use knife for Kunai, dagger for Tanto, and sword for Katana. You may have noticed I am on chapter 66 when you commented this on chapter one. The chances of the rest of it being similar is high, the chances of it changing at this point is absolutely nill.

The fact that you apparently “Copy and Paste” this exact same message onto every story that does this (There’s a reason the amount of stories that do this is “surprisingly high” boyo, it’s because that’s the style a lot of people have decided made sense for the story they wanted to tell.) and have blocked PMs is a pretty good indicator that you know your comments are useless.

I’ve mentioned anonymous reviews in the AN of one of my other stories- which may be down at this point, actually- but this is rather similar so I’ll reword it to also include those who will put their name on the review but are still too cowardly to do anything productive with it.

“If you are unable to discuss your opinion then that opinion holds no value and to share it is worthless. Keep it to yourself and spare us of your filth.”

And that’s my rant on a stupid fucking review. Don’t think I dislike the review because it was negative- I don’t even care that Darck Master / Kiraxen decided that one review wasn’t sufficient and decided to post the exact same comment about the fact that they won’t be reading anymore- I dislike it because of how absolutely useless it was.

Everyone doing the same thing doesn’t make it right, but to be of the opinion that you must be right about them all being wrong with how they choose to write stories in their free time and post to the internet for others to enjoy is just pathetic.

There is no correct way to do fanfics- if there was I wouldn’t have to look at the pairings before the title of a story to make sure it’s not Yaoi- so let authors write how they want to write.

Thank you.

—End Rant—

And now, with that out of the way, I’m going to grab a bite to eat and get back to chapter 67.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid