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I kind of like seeing Ririko bumbling around brazenly without a care in the world. She's just intelligent enough to make it entertaining without stooping to caveman detective level.
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Jul 21, 2020 10:46
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 18:44 |
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it was very funny how during drunk introspection ririko remembered the itemized list her terrible husband went through about everything she does wrong and what to do instead. however her conclusion about this remains that she'll do what she wants. it is what she wants, so it must be correct despite that being objectively untrue.
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Jul 21, 2020 12:01
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Also, I just wanted to say thank you to everbody for nice messages. It's true that my motivation has faltered a bit here, especially with that last update which was pretty blah, but seeing as there are others who are like me also somewhat interested in seeing what happens with the whole backstory, has definitely helped restore my motivation. So thanks everybody and from now on we should be able to resume the updates with a bit more typical tempo that we've had so far!
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Jul 21, 2020 19:43
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Yeah, I think like everyone else I'm completely mystified at what the hell these cases are but the sense of incoming drama is strong ... so I need to know like that guy who's working for us now, what is his deal aside from being Extremely Excited
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Jul 22, 2020 03:00
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Welcome back! Last time, we didn't have a particularly useful session, apart from learning a bit more about the assault incident that Mamoru was apparently involved in. We also met with the victim, one Harada Yuuko, but she pretty much refused to work with us. We also learned that a psychiatric hospital, Hayakawa Clinic, was somehow involved in the whole story, but also there we were met with a wall of silence from Nurse Ratched. While all this was going on, Yuuji was also investigating, so let's first find out what news there is from that side. As mentioned, last update was really not super interesting, but I can promise you that this one is pretty much the exact opposite!      And so, we find ourselves again in that part of the game where we have a bit of freedom where we want to go! The choices are, from the top: Takeuchi Detective Agency, Kakiuchi House, Kyouwa World Transportation, Kaiuchi's sister's house, The newspaper office, Hayakawa Clinic and the lottery kiosk. I know what you're thinking: let's go talk to the "sister" because she might provide some missing pieces to this puzzle. But, no. If you go there, she's simply not at home. In fact, only three of these locations actually have anything useful to talk about--if you go to the hospital or to the lottery kiosk, you're simply told to go away, and the sister, as mentioned, is not at home. Therefore, let's start with our scatterbrained friend at the newspaper. Don't worry, though, we'll get to talk at length to the sister a bit later today, just not as part of this "free movement" phase! Anyway, to the newspaper office we go!       In order to continue we need to do a check.  Head: He keeps nodding his head, like he understand everything. Left hand: He's scratching his body randomly. Right hand: The right hand is moving rhytmically. Let's go with "head" this time. Well, your memory so far hasn't exactly proven itself to be reliable, so... A few moments later...  Well, that's all we can find out here for now, so let's head to our next destination, which is to see how our client Kanako is doing!   It's "check" time!  Kanako: She always seems to be very careful about her personal appearance. Hands: Looking at her right now, she doesn't seem emotionally unstable. Face: Her complexion looks bette than before. Let's talk about her appearance.      Well, clearly Kanako is still behaving extremely erratically, but beleive me you haven't seen the half of it yet! In any case, we need to make a move towards our third and last stop for now: the taxicab company.    Well maybe if we do a "check", we'll be able to convince him.  Shoulders: He's shrugging his shoulders, looking uncomfortable. Pocket: Notebook contains business information. Perhaps what I'm looking for is there. It's not really been mentioned directly, but you can see that he has a notebook stuffed in his pocket. So let's talk about that.     Well, whether she messes it up or not, remains to be seen. But I just wanted to mention, out of all relationships in this game, the one between these two really seems almost the most healthy of them all. If nothing else, they're both pretty honest with each other. And that concludes our driving session for today. Let's head back to the office and see what is new there!    Suspect Kakiuchi Mamoru (30) used to work at Hayakawa Clinic in Minato, Tokyo. The owner of the clinic is Hayakawa Junichi (55), a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Hayakawa Junichi is a pioneer in music therapy in Japan and his achievements have been well recognised by the scientific community. At the time of the incident, Kakiuchi worked at the hospital as a music therapist. Victim Harada Yuuko was being treated at the same hospital and came in contact with Kakiuchi. The hospital has a system where doctors and therapists with together to administer treatment. Oota Masami (52) was the doctor in charge of the victim Harada Yuuko. According to the police, they are proceeding with the investigation and have not yet confirmed whether Dr. Oota was herself involved in the incident.    And that means... yes, you guessed it! We are FINALLY going to have a talk with the "sister". So make sure you're holding on tight, because this one is going to be a bit... well, you'll see.   The beginning of this conversation proceeds via the speaker at the door.    Actually here she also explains which kanji are used to write her name, but this has no relevance to the plot and also there is no joke to be found here, so I decided to omit that part since it would just be messy in translation.  Right, well, while we collect our thoughts, let's do a "check"!  Yukiko: Is Yukiko his wife and not his sister? But then what is Kanako? Face: Beautiful facial features. Has a feel similar to Kanako. Arms: Beautiful, but it seems there are some shadows. Overall, feels a bit fragile. None of these have any extra dialogue, so we just continue where we left off.   Is she... is she literally repeating word for word what we already heard from Kanako on previous occasions? Well, let's do another "check"...  Shoulders: Somehow seems a bit lonely, I guess the two of them keep pasing each other. Face: A very gentle look when she talks about her husband. This time, we'll choose the first option to talk about.  Also, it's time for another "check". There are a few of those in this conversation!  Eyes: From time to time she smiles for no reason. It feels a bit forced? Shoulders: Seems a bit uncomfortable. What is bothering her? Again, we'll go with the second option.     Just one more "check" in this conversation!  Arms: Unlike before, she's now gesticulating wildly! Kanako: Is she saying that the assault was not real? I have no idea what's going on! Eyes: Her eyes are glazed over, she's really angry now! But again there are no conversation options so we just go on with the original talk.      Well, that was all kinds of weird, but at least for now we're done here. Let's go back to our car so we can have a mini-breakdown.     Unfortunately, before Ririko can finish that though, she is interrupted by a phone call.         Are we in a repeating time loop here? We already had this conversation more than once! Well, let's do a quick check before we continue, why not?  Kanako: She's exhausted and her whole body seems like an empty shell. Eyes: Looking somewhere into the distance... who knows where her mind is. Again, there is no extra conversation here, so we'll keep going.       You know, seems like a good moment for one last "check" today!  Arms: Unlike before, she's now gesticulating wildly! Kanako: She's saying the same things as Yukiko. I have no idea what's going on! Eyes: Her eyes are glazed over, she's really angry now! No conversation options, let's move on.    Apparently that's a Japanese expression used to describe the men who lose interest once "the chase" is over, or something along those lines. And she leaves, just like that.       So many questions... Also, Ririko, girl, are you all right? Because you don't seem all right.
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Jul 30, 2020 22:22
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magically potent hypnotism seems like a bit much for an incompetent pi to handle. i wonder, will ririko actually figure out what is going on this time before someone inexplicably explains it to her?
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Jul 30, 2020 23:14
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I like the shimmer/warp effect - the game does that to let you know things are going weird, huh?
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Jul 31, 2020 01:06
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I can't tell if this is secret twins or a split personality or what and this owns.
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Jul 31, 2020 03:02
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Psion posted:I like the shimmer/warp effect - the game does that to let you know things are going weird, huh? I guess it's more of a representation of the state of Ririko's mind, who as I mentioned really doesn't seem to be at all well, with all the playground hallucinations which I don't think have anything to do with hyphotism since they started long before this case. It's really funny because at first I didn't even notice the shimmering effect but then I was like "is that... is that... picture moving?". And indeed it was moving! Also it was a bit of a pain in the rear end to convert it into an animated GIF in such a way that it doesn't have a visible jump lol. Anyway, next time is the finale of this case, so hopefully we'll find out what this is all about! 
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Jul 31, 2020 05:26
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Kanako's and Yukiko's angry poses are mirrors - even the way they hold themselves in their neutral pose are pretty similar, shoulders rolled back, chest out, same hair and eye color. I bet if we meet the assault victim she's going to have the same hair and eye color. Their Bigamist husband has A Type.
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Jul 31, 2020 08:00
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Robindaybird posted:I bet if we meet the assault victim she's going to have the same hair and eye color. Their Bigamist husband has A Type. We did meet her: 
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Jul 31, 2020 08:20
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So he hypnotized these two women and told them the other was his sister, and also did something that didn't work to Harada Yuuko causing her to react and him to lose his job. And also Ririko's just breaking down, hard. This is so weird.
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Jul 31, 2020 15:03
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Ririko seems so confused by the entire concept of bigamy. Like, sure, there's an added weird dimension here of the women both saying the same things (presumably because the husband hypnotized them to parrot those lines back when asked about these topics), but you'd think the basic idea of "guy has two families, keeps them both in the dark about each other" wouldn't be so staggeringly incomprehensible to a PI who has said she spends most of her time tracking down cheating spouses.
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Jul 31, 2020 19:22
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Oh... yeah. And given our Heroine has the same hair color. I am not predicting good things.
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Jul 31, 2020 19:28
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woah this update!!  what if both of them + the husband were hypnotized??
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Aug 4, 2020 03:59
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Booky posted:woah this update!! I know. To be honest, I didn't know exactly what we're getting ourselves into by starting this game. I only had a bit of a look, and thought to myself, "well, looks interesting, Uematsu was involved with music, so why not". And, some time later, well, here we are.
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Aug 4, 2020 21:24
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This rules actually, I want more of the game to lean into weird poo poo like this.
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Aug 5, 2020 22:24
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So last time Ririko finally met the "sister", Yukiko, but it turned out that she thinks that she is the wife and that Kanako is actually the sister of Mamoru. After that things got a little weird, and Ririko's mind also started to wander a bit, but ultimately she ended up having a bit of a thought regarding who among the people involved in this case might be lying. Then, let's see how this story ends. Well, it's clear by this point that the whole scheme was somehow cooked up by Mamoru, so let's pick that.   The following morning...       It may be a bit hard to see, but there is what appears to be a woman sitting in the back seat.   Well, I guess at least somebody understands what's going on here... maybe? In any case, our next stop is again the clinic, because if you recall, we still haven't been able to talk to the director there.   Luckily, we're interrupted...  No, he can't read minds. Remember that Ririko left a business card last time.  A few moments later, in his office.   I guess that must have been the only available chair, huh?       Believe it or not, it's time for a "check". But don't worry, it's the only one in this episode!  Hayakawa: Calm and gentle presence. He must be popular with women. Eyes: Is there a tough hidden side behind that smile looking approvingly at people? Mouth: Soft and smooth way of telling a story. It's easy to trust him. Let's pick the first one. I think it most cases it really doesn't matter what you pick as the game will loop you around if there is something that you really have to pick before moving on.   And boy did the reporter do a good job with hiding her real name!      Well. That was all kinds of enlightening. It is nice that the game also takes a bit more realistic stance towards hypnosis and is trying to go with "well, it's not magic, but Mamoru is just that good at it", which is at least better that what I was fearing would happen. Anyway, let's head outside and get Dr. Oota's address from the friendly nurse.   We're done here, so let's head back to the office.     If you look carefully, the address is actually the same one we already got from Hayakawa.  Ha. Which one of them is he, then?        That answers that question I guess, then. Although a minor point of curiosity--so far (as explained by the characters themselves), the name Masaru was written in katakana alone, but when talking about Oota Masaru, presumably his real name, it's actually written with kanji (勝). In any case, we do need to make a choice here, but the game even tells it to you anyway, so...   Our first stop on Ririko's final round of interviews is Harada Yuuko. Maybe finally we can get something out of her!    Looks like these two guys were involved in some real creepy stuff here... Anyway, we have one last person to talk to... Dr. Oota. So, let's go to her house.   *ding dong*                 As you can see, after this crazy conversation, we already on the way back to the office!    Well, enough of that. We need to arrange some extra support for tonight's confrontation. So let's call our friend.   A moment later, Mamoru is on the phone.  Well, I guess it's really time to finish this! Let's go to the playground!                                                 And well, that's the end of our second chapter! I admit that I got a bit demotivated around the middle, but it seems to me that it managed to end in an interesting way. This is such a weird game. It makes me wonder even how it ever managed to get published, really. Although it has to be said, that it's definitely more character driven than plot driven, which is not bad as such, but it does seem to result in there being a bit of a lag in the story in the middle of a case. But anyway. Next time, we'll start on the third chapter. But don't worry, as I already mentioned previously, the characters from earlier chapters reappear in subsequent ones, so at the very least I will tell you that we will be seeing more of Sawada still! I do enjoy the interactions between him and Ririko. Next time in Chapter 3: Ririko gets her head examined! ivantod fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Aug 19, 2020 |
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Aug 18, 2020 21:27
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You have Yuuji's portrait instead of Yuuko's on the "Yes it was." line. Also hoooly poo poo that ending. The case had really weak parts but it sure picked the hell up there. Ririko completely owning Mamoru was impressive and shows she can actually be competent when she wants to be, and more than one person pointing out she really needs therapy anyways was nice too. The game does seem to know what it's doing, even if it's not quite clear at times, and the music's excellent and has been even more excellent in this update, so I can't say I'm not enjoying this
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Aug 18, 2020 22:49
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Go on a date with Sawada, Ririko. He's the best thing to happen to you recently.
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Aug 18, 2020 22:50
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gently caress that escalated like crazy. We went from  to  in record time.
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Aug 18, 2020 23:18
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asymmetrical posted:Go on a date with Sawada, Ririko. He's the best thing to happen to you recently. he seems to be the only person on the planet who enjoys her bullshit instead of merely tolerating it.
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Aug 19, 2020 02:43
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Thankfully that case didn't end as badly as I was worried it would.
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Aug 19, 2020 06:56
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i wonder if they actually got paid for all this?
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Aug 19, 2020 07:21
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What a BLAST. That climax is such a delightful ride that shouldn't work nearly as well as it does. I think my favorite part of Mamoru's serial killer speech at the end is how he writes off the psychoanalysis about him. "Ugh, way to go Freud on me. I'm just me, doing my thing, stop judging me for it."
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Aug 19, 2020 09:39
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i wonder if they actually got paid for all this? I am assuming the two wives or their parents are probably grateful enough to pay to get out of this trance-induced relationship hell, given that the whole investigation was requested as a cry for help more or less. The backstory exposition dump was a bit heavy-handed but the confrontation after is so delightfully hilarious. All these dramatic flairs like heights, moonlight and an excessively smug speech, then presumably Sawada just walk Ririko away while Mamoru shakes his fist atop monkey bars 
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Aug 19, 2020 10:11
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Blaze Dragon posted:You have Yuuji's portrait instead of Yuuko's on the "Yes it was." line. Thank's I've fixed the mistake. I like your comment "the game seems to know what it's doing". It does feel that even if there can a bit of a lag in story in some places, that somebody is definitely properly at the steering wheel here and the story has been thought through a bit! Also I think that the second case was definitely more interesting than the first, so hopefully that's a trend that will continue. I'm glad that everybody enjoyed the ending, because I also though it was done in a pretty fun way.
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Aug 19, 2020 15:53
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The fact it turns out other Masaru is an accomplice and not hypnotized really helps to ground the premise and really adds a believable sleaze factor to it. And sadly, the Doc is right about how much of a stigma mental health and therapy has in Japan.
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Aug 19, 2020 16:33
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Yeah I think we would all have appreciated the pacing not having that giant dead spot in the middle but at least the ending was solidly conclusive. The image of a guy getting real mad on top of the playground equipment while our protagonist just walks away with her voice recorders is hilarious.
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Aug 20, 2020 19:25
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I honestly love the framing - sitting on the jungle gym to literally look down on Ririko and look imposing, but it just highlights how petty and childish he is.
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Aug 20, 2020 22:30
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Everything about that final confrontation was great and cinematic, I loved the psych-out bit about having 3 recorders.
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Aug 21, 2020 04:34
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i like that they demystified his hypnotism. going out to confront him wasn't particularly dangerous, because there was no chance that he could hypnotize someone who was wary of him. and because he was a broke-brained misogynist, he really thought he could talk his way out of it if not outright seduce ririko.
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Aug 21, 2020 04:40
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I agree, I was afraid they were going to go there, but nope - Ririko only was in as much danger as anyone confronting a criminal on their own and she brought back up and three recorders.
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Aug 21, 2020 15:33
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hahaha, goddamn, that was great. I also like how they highlighted another thing about weird misogynist guys like him: they often don't actually enjoy sex, because the way they approach life renders them unable to feel intimacy.
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Aug 21, 2020 21:13
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another funny thing was how ririko learned very early on that kakiuchi was a hypnotist, but never bothered to tell any of her team or do any research on the subject. then later she had to laboriously think through exactly how and why all of this was happening. "hmm, this guy got in serious trouble in the past for abusing trust and manipulating women. but now, who could possibly be responsible for this exact same guy being a bigamist?" *8 hours later* "i know! it must be the guy who got in serious trouble for the past for this exact same poo poo and is currently a bigamist!"
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Aug 21, 2020 23:50
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So, I have a bit of a question for everyone here... In our next chapter, among other things, we'll have to deal with a cipher. Unfortunately, to fully understand how it's deciphered requires knowing a couple of points about Japanese language. Since I've been known to slip into long-winded "linguistical" explanations from time to time, I wanted to see if there is a preference for again a bit of a longer explanation, or if you would prefer to simply take the cipher and the result of its decipherment more or less "as-is", without going into too much detail? Note that either way, the general idea of the cipher will be clear, just to fully understand why there are multiple possible solutions in one case would require some extra detail to be explained for non-Japanese speakers. So, what say you?
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Aug 23, 2020 16:21
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I loving love reading essays punch it, Chewie!
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Aug 23, 2020 16:34
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Seraphic Neoman posted:I loving love reading essays punch it, Chewie! 
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Aug 23, 2020 18:13
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Essay! Essay!
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Aug 23, 2020 20:33
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 18:44 |
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This entire game is like a fever dream where like 90% of the characters are a continuation of the same person, helping Ririko with minimal resistance. I hope Sawada joins the detective agency like everyone else we get fired for playing fast and loose with confidential information
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Aug 23, 2020 22:38
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