Lurker > dowolf

speaking of pj things, here's one of his greatest(?) runs, with after-the-fact commentary.


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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

i literally cannot imagine a falcom game without fishing.

Blasphemy!
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

NFUN posted...

i play harmonica and I'm great just ask @dowolf

that is certainly one word for it.

anyways, i played the french horn back in the day.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

this is easy mode compared to trails spoilers.

even if i dropped everything and skipped work and (etc) I don't know if I could beat all three remaining games in 6 weeks >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

oh i'm several days late "lol"
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

...i want to, but i don't have time.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

Yeah, I put the voices to Japanese after the patch came out, so I noticed that, and I like Eclair a lot more than the hyperliteral translation of the kanji that XSeed went with.

though on the other hand when there's already a Claire in the game I can't blame them.

though on the third hand that makes two RPGs in the same era where an "Eclair" became not-"Eclair" in the translation (the other one being Lightning, for anyone who didn't know), which is a pretty nifty fun fact imho >_>

A big part of why Emma and Sara are up there for me is that they're the two characters that feel like they're brimming with mystery: Emma with all the witch stuff, and Sara with her past. With everyone else, it feels like there's not much new to discover about them. I'm sure I'm wrong, given that this is game 1 of 4 in the sub-sub-series, but eh.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

Thanks. I read it during lunch. I think I like the game without the scene -- I think keeping the plot tighter in that section works better than having an intermission that doesn't really add much -- but I'm glad I read it because I am also someone who reads every line of NPC dialogue >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

Yeah, I remember the reveal of that in The 3rd. Which is part of why the impact was lessened -- I was like "Oh so we have *another* true story. just like every single book in this series. 'cool.'" I just missed the more direct references tying them to Carnelia until the end, I guess. Like, it was increasingly clear that Micht was more than he appeared, but... Yeah.

FWIW, Sara was my second choice after Emma, but I decided to go with the character that didn't require a creepy student/teacher relationship >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

xp1337 posted...

I was laughing a bit thinking Vita as an Anguis would duck your notice if you let your guard down after the "reveal" that she was Misty, thinking that was it for her in terms of secret identities. Chapter 6 C is generally considered the hardest fight in the game, yeah, with the possible exception of the Valimar fight at the end, but I think that's "solved" at a sufficient level.

I mean, I knew she was something else, though an Anguis was a bit more than I expected.

Alfin's a good character but I didn't think her worthy of special mention. She mostly shines with trying to play matchmaker between Elise and Rean. Toval (the Vampire Hunter? or is he supposed to be the guy from Carmelia?) and Micht were an interesting side thing, but the "Based on a true story!" reveal felt like a really bizarre drop in the moment and I kinda let it slide. Dungeon's neat, kinda reminded me of FFXIII and XIII-2's final dungeons, if with a more reasonable budget than those games'. Unlimited Blade Works at the final boss was probably my favorite visual moment there.

I did favor Emma, yeah. #dealwithit

I massively suspected Crow was C mostly because... well, mostly because I know Crow's featured heavily in all the artwork for CS2 >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

and clear.

initial thoughts: Nobody expects unlimited blade works! Also, nobody expects xenogears! (well okay the latter I did kinda see coming but >_>)

also that fight is BS on nightmare.

I also looked up the stats for max transfer bonus, and wow i beat the game at lvl 65 and the highest bonus requires level 80 i feel like such a slacker >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

ditto

I was convinced she was part of one of the groups of witches! "Whoops" >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

tocs stuff again

SHARON IS AN ENFORCER

WHAT

BUT...

-8BK;LJS;LKEYJ;AJY?! (<-- mind exploding please pay it no heed)
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

just reached the scene i mentioned two posts above.

"Well that was anticlimactic" i admit i laughed so hard.

i have more thoughts on the moment itself but i don't know where that would be spoiling up to for people who haven't played Crossbell so I'll keep that to myself for now.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

...Michel? Not Michelle?

This bothers me far more than it should.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

Mac Arrowny posted...

Dowolf, ToCS1 definitely doesn't get close to the end of Ao...

...I mean, I don't expect it to reach the epilogue of Ao. Like, I straight-up said the moment where I expect ToCS1 to end...

...I don't know what the point of saying this is?
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

mini-update:

The time has come

From Ao, knowing about the bells there makes me really curious about what's going on with them here. I don't expect another FMA-style countrywide magic circle thingymabob, but...
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

i may have not posted anything during Chapter 6.

I definitely enjoyed it though! Lots more mysteries (Why hello there Sharon who is this "second master"?), lots more hinting, and interrupting the boss by blowing up his ship was hilarious. He was also easily the hardest boss of the run, but he proved defenseless when... Well, when I respec'd my party so everyone had a minimum 20% chance on attack to inflict a status he was weak to. Plus 20% chance to delay him. Plus double speed down. Plus that beautiful 45% net chance from Angie. Plus Lvl5 juggler, which is stupidly broken holy shit--50% nightmare, which he's weak to, and 90% random something else yes please. .

For the bike trip, I chose Emma, which I think was pretty prescient given that I'm pretty sure her chasing after the blue bird like that is something only she does, and that everyone else sticks around for Misty. It also gave me the amazing line "I guess she's just secretly been a bird watcher all this time" (REAN HOW CAN YOU BE MORE OBLIVIOUS THAN LLOYD) so yeah.

Speaking of, Rean is basically Lloyd 2.0. This will make sense to the 1.5 of you who've played the Crossbell games, but yeah >_>

Misty's hinting that she knew Crossbell was going to declare independence was very interesting. I don't remember her from the Crossbell games, but given that we've already met her in two "forms," a third wouldn't be that out of the blue. I also really like some of the random references, like Bond popping up, and people mentioning the IBC freezing all assets, etc. Which means we're getting close-ish to the end of Ao. That's interesting in its own right, since it reinforces the feeling I've had that we're basically being allowed to meet Class 7 during a (relatively) slow time that precedes the moment a number of very... interesting characters just happened to make their departure from Ao with the comment that they were heading to Erebonia.

And speaking of spoilers I know from Ao (presumably anyone who's played CS will know this, but...), I'm increasingly curious if this game is going to end with Osborne getting shot. That does seem like the obvious break point.

And yeah, thanks for that info. Like I said earlier, I may or may not have hacked my save file to give myself more bonding points, so I should be good on that count >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

cold steel.

i'm at the festival.

the main menu train updated to show everyone in their costumes.

i'm dying.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

pyresword posted...

I read the spoiler because I correctly guessed what you were referring to and had already been spoiled on that myself some time ago. Also unlike most instances of this I actually don't think this was my fault, which is also irritating because I think it's the biggest thing I've been spoiled on in the series. You would think that when you see a reddit thread titled something like "(spoiler) So about the beginning of CS1" that the spoilers would be for Cold Steel and not the biggest plot reveal in Ao (maybe? idk I haven't actually played the game). Clearly I was mistaken.

...wow what an ass.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

Major Ao no Kiseki spoilers, medium CS spoilers ahoy! Do not read if you haven't played Ao no Kiseki!

I just caught up to the very beginning of the prologue, and the first thing that popped into my mind was "Wait, Millium and Crow were *not* here then." And given the nature of the prologue scene in Zero vs. the final dungeon in Zero, I can't chalk that up as authorial laziness or anything like that. The prologue must have been from a different timeline than the one I'm currently playing. So the railway guns were fired as the screen turned to black, and then Kea changed things? Specifically, changed things so that Millium and Crow joined our party? But why would that make such a difference?

...I should probably finish playing this section to maybe find out, but I wanted to put that into text for the ~2 of you who can read this spoiler >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

I mean, a bigger party isn't the worst thing in the world. It worked in The 3rd, but that's because I already knew most of the playables, I knew the combat system like the back of my hand so I could immediately go "Well Josette's worthless," etc. Plus, the support slots there (and in Crossbell) meant it felt like I had more than 4. While the swaps kind of let me have 6 in Cold Steel, I've basically stopped using them, mostly because situational magic/crafts (the only real reason to do so) isn't something that comes up particularly often; I generally just find the best four for a boss and go with that.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

mini CS update, just finished Chapter 5 freetime.

First of all: CALLED IT! Misty = Vita woohoo! And if the "those two" she mentioned aren't Emma and Celine, I'll eat my hat. (edit: i wrote that before we spoke to emma in the dorm whcih practically confirmed it I swear >_>)

Also, it's kinda strange to see Osborne presented so ominously. I mean, it makes sense from a player's perspective to do so, since he's been ominous in both Sky the 3rd and Ao, but I had expected him to be (at least initially) painted in a better light here.

Nice additional characterization for Elliot and Machias too btw. I had pegged Elliot as coming to Thors because he wasn't quite good enough to enter a music school, but this route is more interesting.

Finally, as cool as Crow and Millium are, dear god we do not need eleven party members falcom plz. The fact that Sara was in my party in the prologue and therefore constitutes the 12th doesn't make things better >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

so i just completed the free day in ToCS Chapter 4.

The plot sped up slightly in chapter 3, which was kinda nice, but then whoa. The game was like "...REVEAL..." and I was like "Yeah I'm down for a reveal" and then the game was like "nope" and I'm like "SCREW YOU GAME" and then the game was like "PSYCHE!" and I'm like awwww yeah. Emma continues to be the most interesting non-Rean character. Also, the protagonist is interesting again, which is really nice after Ao/Zero. Free-time events also seem to be improving in quality, or maybe I'm just getting more invested in the characters. Either way, I look forward to them more, even if they're still roughly half as long as they should be.

Gameplay-wise, it's getting really annoying that the quartz bonuses are flat and not percentage-based. +10 to a stat that's already 600 is kinda meh. Don't really have much to add here, except that horses are awesome and I miss them already.

(p.s. is it bad that I literally sing "Don't be defeated by a friend" during the chorus of "Don't be defeated by a friend"?)
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

i mean, call me when it's possible to build a competitive deck without putting down $100+.

remains now and forever my stance on Artifact.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

vivi is pretty good, but i think she'd drive me so insane in real life that I can't put her head-and-shoulders above the rest.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

in the slowest playthrough update of all time, I finished Chapter 2 of Trails of Cold Steel!

first of all: While I still prefer the Sky/Crossbell orbments, wow letting my physical characters have four different status effects at 10% feels amazing. I can't wait until I have 20% (or even higher!) probability status effects, because then I'm getting status effects more often than not. Since they've gone with bosses simply taking status effects for one turn (instead of being immune) this time around, it might actually be viable into lategame nightmare? Or we'll just encounter things that are 100% immune in the near future and that'll be that.

Storyline-wise, we're still in the early-goings, and with 9 characters plus Sara (plus Towa/Crow/etc.) the early-goings are gonna take a while. And I mean it's a four-game series I knew what I was getting into, but still. I would've liked for a stronger feel of where the overall plot was going beyond the "spoilers" I know from the Crossbell games. Though based on random NPC comments and newspapers it looks like we're already at Ao on the timeline, which is further ahead than I thought we'd be at this point, but given the events in the prologue I guess this makes sense...

As for the individual characters, Machaias and Junus's arc was so cliched that I couldn't really get into it, and Fie's drop of "yeah I'm a Jaeger" was so obvious to me and so understated that it was hard for it to really affect me. On the other hand, Emma apparently knows magic?! There's been some hints of magic before in the series, but I can't recall anything like this. So that random bombshell got my mind whirring, at least.

Oh and the lovebirds who live across from the dorm are wonderful and awesome and nothing better ever happen to them or else.

Also I may or may not have hacked my ToCS save file to give myself more free time points I regret nothing.

Finally, in non-Trails news, I'm running Half-Minute Hero 2 for Questing for Glory at twitch.tv/rpglimitbreak tonight at 8 EST; if you have nothing else going on tonight you're welcome to watch >_>
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

Johnbobb posted...

part of me thought it was a prequel (Catty/Bratty aren't friends yet, Burger guy seems to be working his first job, Undyne doesn't know Alphys) but now I'm PRETTY SURE it's an AU, because of one specific thing

When you talk to Sans, he talks about having just met your mom (Toriel)

in Undertale, Sans never knew Toriel personally until the endgame, and just referred to her as "old lady"

which suggests that this didn't happen before Undertale (because he didn't meet her properly before Undertale) and didn't happen after (because he would've already known her)

I obviously don't have the script in front of me, but I'm pretty sure Undyne was just playing dumb/tsundere with Alphys, given how that conversation went.

Additionally, Gerson seems to be dead, and that would make this being a prequel hard.

i dunno. i'm sure the twitters and the tumblrs will start digging through the files and find something sooner or later.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

level 2
buffalo

sorry this is 1 minute late the game hasn't started yet i promise.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

Level 2: Buffalo + 8.5
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

ScareChan posted...

Ben best hype man

even in death he was a very good scummate

oh yeah.

100% play more Ben you're a cool dude.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

a few thoughts on my own play:

i feel like i played this game basically as well as I could, minus perhaps the claim... when I was doing nothing but play the game. When I was literally spending every spare moment I had looking into things, coming up with arguments, driving all three mislynches, I was golden. But the second I even showed a hint of slack, a hint of spending my time doing literally anything else, I got destroyed for it. Got to the point where I had to spend Sunday translating about 20k characters just to catch up on my commitments there (to put this in perspective: most translators consider 3k to be a full day's work).

and it's infuriating to get suspected because I can't be on the game 24/7, because I tried to have a life outside of work and this game on d2. More infuriating to see other players find my play inferior to others' when, quite frankly, I was never in danger of being lynched and drove every successful lynch.

this is also why I was frustrated with Plum for not just winning the game d4: because this game was killing me and I needed it to end. But that's neither here nor there.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

also yeah.

never publicly call for modkills.

you have a problem, take it to pms or save it for after the game.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

Suprak the Stud posted...

Definitely swingy, for sure. High power games tend to be.

Scum got crazy lucky.

Hit the double voter day 1. Hit protection day 1. Hit the chat reader day 2. Town killed scanner day 3.

Scum had zero scanning and just were super good with their kills. And scum had no strongman or way to stop SBell's permanent redirect other than killing him. Like...I can't believe how good things went considering they couldn't scan in any way.

not only did we get crazy lucky, but almost all scum power was invested in me. I was the vig kill and the extra vote and the one getting crazy bonus powers.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

balance was fine, just very snowbally.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

IfGodCouldDie posted...

Unless of course they can't use Viseron to control the vote

yes.

those restrictions, that you so recently denied you meant what you meant.

"one scum left" is such a remote scenario that I can't really justify spending brain power on it to be honest. Like, 4/18? The scumteam would riot. Especially given the d1 modkill.

anyways nn.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

because if you're town, if there are two scum left and one of them was voting Scare, he just unvotes and votes you at the end instead.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

IfGodCouldDie posted...

dowolf posted...

now you're pretending that what you said means something different than what you clearly meant it to mean.

Oh pray tell, please inform me what I meant when I said what I said.

IfGodCouldDie posted...

If there are two scum left, then they could have won yesterday barring restrictions on Viseron. If Viseron is restricted from hammering a vote on me might have scared people off of that lynch. It was pretty close near the end of day for only Blade to insure that scare was lynched.

here, it is imminently clear that "restrictions" refers to the theory that Viserion wasn't able to hammer there for some reason.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

now you're pretending that what you said means something different than what you clearly meant it to mean.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

IfGodCouldDie posted...

I'm not sure how you believe I assume you are town when I have been adamant about you and plum being my biggest scumspects.

IfGodCouldDie posted...

If there are two scum left, then they could have won yesterday barring restrictions on Viseron.

that second statement isn't true if I'm scum. Ergo, you made it assuming I'm town.

Again, the attacks you are making do not make any sense if you're town. You are clearly working under a set of assumptions that you would only have if you're scum.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

IfGodCouldDie posted...

dowolf posted...

if you're town the scumteam pretty much has to be people who voted you yesterday.

that set is dowolf, Scare, Tange, Neablis.

so unless Tange is literally the only remaining scum? Nah we good.

If there are two scum left, then they could have won yesterday barring restrictions on Viseron. If Viseron is restricted from hammering a vote on me might have scared people off of that lynch. It was pretty close near the end of day for only Blade to insure that scare was lynched.

Thanks for assuming I'm town. I cannot express how much more confident that makes me.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

if you're town the scumteam pretty much has to be people who voted you yesterday.

that set is dowolf, Scare, Tange, Neablis.

so unless Tange is literally the only remaining scum? Nah we good.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius

IfGodCouldDie posted...

You basically concentrated on scare posts regarding me. That doesn't come across as that earnest of an effort when I am already the set lynch.

scare talked about you a lot.

like.

Stop whining about how I'm being unfair and go ISO him yourself.
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Nonsense. "Testing" is for when you're still guessing--and now, I have no need to guess. -- Agatha, Girl Genius