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MechaCrash posted:While I am sure you can guess that my thoughts on the war are "go full I don't think there are actual mechanics for beating the poo poo out of idiot vassals that won't stop blowing each other up, much as I'd love there to be. There is sadly no Space Pope penalizing pointless infighting. However, I'm fully agreed when it comes to finishing the war as swiftly as possible. The longer it drags out, not only does that cost us money and probably manpower dealing with whatever scraps our rivals can piece together in the time we give them, but I imagine having an ongoing war can't be good for our internal stability. I think a slightly larger rep hit is a small cost to pay to just stop being at war as soon as possible, especially since we never seem to have much trouble generating reputation.
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Feb 4, 2023 00:13
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Commissioner Oriole Weiss posted:That was a well-placed blow, and now we have our logical path to Sigma Draconis. Algorab will fall soon of its own accord. Good odds of coming to our way of thinking, and same odds of going along with the Simpson gang. We should grab them first and put off conflict with the Simpsonians until we're good and ready with those mercenary megabucks.
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Feb 4, 2023 03:15
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EclecticTastes posted:I don't think there are actual mechanics for beating the poo poo out of idiot vassals that won't stop blowing each other up, much as I'd love there to be. There is sadly no Space Pope penalizing pointless infighting. Thou shalt not raid. I wish they'd complain sensibly and propose something that would work, instead it's get into ships and be space pirates. Xlorp fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Feb 4, 2023 |
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Feb 4, 2023 04:17
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Saiph is part of the Simpson Alliance, we won't be taking it anytime soon, I'd imagine. Also, as nice as Sigma Draconis might be, I'm still hoping we find a feasible way to do out terraforming on Arrakis (though if terraforming becomes a repeatable thing we can do, I can wait, I just want to make more Dune references).
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Feb 4, 2023 04:21
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Commodore Geraldine Weiss posted:As the Council knows, I have begun working up attack plans for Algorab- although, as of yet, I have little to work with. Attacking within a year should allow me a little time to help our combat effectiveness, but I believe I can be of significantly more aid if we give Diplomacy Director Mariko the time to finish her work with Algorab, and similarly reduce breakage from peacekeepers having to deal with the locals. I will also be in a position where I can safely command the fleet and thus not expose the Director-General- Admiral Carmen Weiss posted:Even if you are still in the birth-bed, Commodore, I can take command of the attack perfectly well. And pushing the attack as close to immediately as possible will, as has been pointed out, ensure we give House McCoy the fewest chances to muster a credible defense. No, I say we should attack as soon as we have the logistics arranged. Commodore Geraldine Weiss posted:My Director-General, you know the only reason that the Admiral proposes this is because she wants- Admiral Carmen Weiss posted:Enough! You forget yourself, Commodore, you are here as a noble of the Military department on sufferance! I am a member of this council and you are not, so hold your tongue! Director-General Jane Weiss posted:Let her speak, Stepmother. I do not convene the Council simply to ignore counsel that might be of value. Commodore Geraldine Weiss posted:... thank you, my lady Director-General. As I was saying, I do not believe that the Admiral's primary motive is military necessity- rather, I believe she would prefer a course of action that would deny me the chance to achieve glory in my deeds. Ever since I have married into the House, I have craved the chance to prove my worth for the House that threw down Emmanuel Goodman and forged a league whose might is now unquestioned. I have been lifted from House Fardell to this, the greatest of Houses, I have married as fine and handsome a man as I could hope for, and you have now granted my kin in House Fardell the honor and privilege of their own colony to rule. I pray in God's name you permit me this chance to repay all you have done for me, Director-General. It would be my greatest honor and my privilege. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Feb 4, 2023 |
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Feb 4, 2023 04:47
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the white zone is for loading and unloading of passenger vehicles only
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Feb 5, 2023 07:56
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Xlorp posted:the white zone is for loading and unloading of passenger vehicles only I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you're trying to get at with this.
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Feb 5, 2023 17:02
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nweismuller posted:I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you're trying to get at with this. Surely, you've seen this movie, haven't you?
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Feb 5, 2023 18:52
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No, I had never seen Airplane!. I now see what Xlorp meant, though, heh.
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Feb 5, 2023 19:03
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nweismuller posted:No, I had never seen Airplane!. I now see what Xlorp meant, though, heh. A classic!
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Feb 8, 2023 13:15
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Admiral Carmen Weiss posted:... as for matters other than the war under Military's purview- Military is still staying ahead of unrest, I believe, but things are getting tenser and tenser in many colonies. The mood is shifting worryingly swiftly at Tseen and Beta Librae, and the situation for public order has reached concerning levels at several colonies, most especially Merope. Merope isn't in immediate danger of revolt, but I believe I should shift peacekeeper resources there as soon as possible. Miaplacidus seems largely under control for now, so I propose I pull the peacekeeper presence there. Given perhaps a year more at Mu Capricorni, we can follow suit by pulling the presence there and reinforce one of the other trouble colonies. And once Geraldine is freed up from arranging assault plans, I likewise wish to have her pulled and assigned to peacekeeping duty. Anything Administration did to provide living space and opportunities almost anywhere would help our situation, especially in those trouble colonies I've mentioned. House Lindsey at Alhena and House Patton at Rotanev are making the spending for ramping up their own peacekeeper forces, so those two colonies are well in hand for the moment. Pulcherrima and Beta Eridani seem to be calming even without escalated peacekeeper presence, although neither is anywhere near the public order situation we have here on Vega, which is unmatched, as far as we can tell, anywhere save Alya, the seat of the Simpson Alliance. That said, our consultation with Security seems to indicate that the Weiss League is actually the bright spot in the colonies as far as public order goes, and that's factoring in our troubles. Huzzah for us and praise the Lord Jesus Christ, our failures are less egregious than those of the other leagues.
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Feb 9, 2023 01:36
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Letting everyone know that I am in fact not dead, and is caught up on both the thread and the Technology update. Just haven't had time to type up a post as of yet. That said, I'm perfectly fine being skipped over this time as to not hold up the LP. I'll backfill Prudence's thoughts on the situation as soon as I can in that case. For what it's worth I'm not planning any big changes in the assignments, and is going to have Prudence try to convince Thomas of letting Oriole put some of that flight sim training to use before she needs a liver transplant.
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Feb 9, 2023 03:04
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The use of fission weaponry in the modern era is almost entirely proscribed, with only limited use of heavy fission mines as area denial well clear of colonial installations occasionally used by some commanders in the modern day. The discovery of the remnants of a colony in Sadalbari- the system between Alsciaukat and Nashira on the jump lanes- has provided stark proof this was not always the case. Sadalbari's colony was destroyed beyond recovery sometime during the Collapse, and no records that it ever existed survived to the modern era. Of course, even if Sadalbari has been ruined too thoroughly to be resettled, its discovery in 2529 does, perhaps, present opportunity...
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Feb 9, 2023 04:49
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"Polly the friendly AI" posted:\ \ self-reflection-cycle \\
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Feb 22, 2023 05:54
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I have a fair amount of screenshot wrangling to do, but in the interim I wondered if anybody had any questions or would be interested in any lore exploration. I can say that next update, we'll see the war went both well- and poorly. Jane made a miscalculation that cost us, regrettably.
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Feb 25, 2023 17:32
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I can't remember if you've mentioned this already, but the Eden ship made me wonder - given that a version of Christianity seems to be the dominant religion of the colonies, do they associate the loss of Earth with the exile of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden in Genesis?
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Feb 26, 2023 17:02
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inflatablefish posted:I can't remember if you've mentioned this already, but the Eden ship made me wonder - given that a version of Christianity seems to be the dominant religion of the colonies, do they associate the loss of Earth with the exile of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden in Genesis? Depends on how you define 'associate'. It's widely believed the loss of Earth was a judgement on humanity by God, in the vein of Babel, the Great Flood, and the like, and there's certainly no going back to Earth. That said, they're perfectly well aware that the events of the Bible all took place on ancient Earth, and so the loss of Earth wasn't the same thing as the expulsion from Eden. So yes, the comparison can be made, but it's not viewed over-literally.
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Feb 26, 2023 23:51
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Sorry I've been dithering with images. Hopefully progress soon. Hope I haven't lost everybody.
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Mar 22, 2023 07:12
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I'm still here!
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Mar 22, 2023 17:46
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I'm not going anywhere.
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Mar 22, 2023 21:42
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You haven't lost everyone, at least!
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Mar 22, 2023 22:58
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No news is good news, amirite?
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Mar 23, 2023 04:58
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You can't get rid of me that easily.
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Mar 23, 2023 11:12
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Romeo's godly mustache isn't going anywhere else, bud!
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Mar 23, 2023 13:07
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Someone around here needs to bring the pointless belligerence. 
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Mar 23, 2023 13:57
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A bit of extra distraction from DREDGE, a horror fishing simulator. I'll turn aside from DREDGE tomorrow and actually deal with images, though.
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Apr 1, 2023 09:09
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I watched Nweis stream himself playing that. I did not expect it to be as good as it was. Horror fishing simulator is a genre I hadn't expected to exist.
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Apr 3, 2023 00:14
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General Revil posted:I watched Nweis stream himself playing that. I did not expect it to be as good as it was. Horror fishing simulator is a genre I hadn't expected to exist. There are actually quite a number of horror fishing games out there, I think a lot of them came out of a game jam where it was the theme. Indie game longplayer AlphaBetaGamer has done videos on a bunch of them, like Earl's Day Off, Fishing Vacation, Gone Fishing, and Lake Facade, to name a few.
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Apr 3, 2023 00:33
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Whew, finally caught up! This is a great LP 
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Apr 6, 2023 04:54
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BassMug posted:Whew, finally caught up! This is a great LP Thanks! I have something over a week away from home coming up, which will stop me being able to write, but once I'm done sitting on my parents' cats I should be in a position to pick this back up. Always nice to hear from new readers!
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Apr 6, 2023 11:12
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I continue to sit on cats, away from saves and screenshots, but find myself restless to write something lore-related. Anything people are interested to hear about?
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Apr 12, 2023 08:08
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nweismuller posted:I continue to sit on cats, away from saves and screenshots, but find myself restless to write something lore-related. Anything people are interested to hear about? I know it’s kind of a silly question, but do they grow tea in the Colonies? I’d wondered if high teas or something along those lines were a custom of the nobility. Related to that, what sorts of sweets are the nobility or commoners fond of? I know access to sugar/honey/other sweeteners was an important factor in history, and I imagine it’s hard to grow a lot of cane/beets or keep bees in space. I’m the guy who reads fantasy/science fiction and wonders about what people eat more than anything :P
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Apr 12, 2023 08:32
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BassMug posted:I know it’s kind of a silly question, but do they grow tea in the Colonies? I’d wondered if high teas or something along those lines were a custom of the nobility. Tea is a specialty product of a few colonies' hydroponics, and is expensive in most colonies, limited by cost to nobility and rare usage by commoners. Sweets are generally fruit- or berry-based, and may contain additional sweetening in the form of synthetic sweeteners, which are not too very difficult to whip up in a lab. As Vega has a few lemon trees it has carefully preserved for luxury food, this means that lemonades, lemon pies, and lemon trifles are a particular local specialty as far as sweets go. Strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries are fairly commonly grown hydroponically, which makes them more available to the commons than lemons and other such exotics that require soil gardens, and fairly widely available across many colonies. You may or may not have caught this post https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3997288&pagenumber=3#post522507279 which gave an overview of diet in general, with less of a focus on sweets per se. Does that largely answer your questions?
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Apr 12, 2023 09:58
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I'm curious about how our neighbors actually view the Weiss Guild, particularly regarding our fiscal policy. Like, we're clearly making use of a lot of very modern economic policies, while our rivals seem to be mostly still in the dark ages when it comes to concepts like "investing your money to make you more money long-term, rather than spending it all on shiny things up-front". What do the other major powers think about our money-first approach?
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Apr 12, 2023 11:27
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EclecticTastes posted:I'm curious about how our neighbors actually view the Weiss Guild, particularly regarding our fiscal policy. Like, we're clearly making use of a lot of very modern economic policies, while our rivals seem to be mostly still in the dark ages when it comes to concepts like "investing your money to make you more money long-term, rather than spending it all on shiny things up-front". What do the other major powers think about our money-first approach? I think overstating just how modern House Weiss economic policies is would be a mistake, but it is true they have a generally more modern approach to economic matters- partly carefully conserved over the generations from our legacy from Orion Industries, and partly redeveloped over Jane's reign as Director-General. Most other Houses have at least some awareness of the wealth of House Weiss, although our relatively sparing display of this wealth by feasts leads some Houses further out to underestimate just how wealthy House Weiss is. The Houses furthest out from the Weiss League largely credit the great wealth of House Weiss to the simple explanation that House Weiss holds the archonship of a mighty league. Although this certainly contributes to House Weiss's wealth, there is, of course, more to it. Many, many Houses credit the wealth of House Weiss primarily to the personal merit of Jane as Director-General and Thomas as Executive Director for the House, seeing that both have great personal skill, knowledge, and focus on administrative excellence. This is admired (when it doesn't exasperate people for how Dull Jane and Thomas can be). This view isn't entirely wrong- much of House Weiss's administration is still a matter of the personal attention and skill of its leaders, but this view misses that House Weiss has developed some institutional practises that greatly help it, even aside from the excellence of its ruler and Administration team. A view of House Weiss's wealth as derived from personal merit means that many Houses have little hope of emulating House Weiss innovations. A few of the most accomplished Administration teams with exposure to House Weiss have begun to understand that House Weiss is beginning to seriously revolutionise economic affairs in its territories, and have some interest in emulating these policies... but even that is a slow process, since overcoming institutional inertia and figuring out just what the relevant innovations are isn't as easy as it might seem. Within the League, there is an appreciation that House Weiss has done much to help build up local prosperity on many colonies, but local colonies are often largely focused on local affairs and underestimate the big picture effects of policy. And, although House Weiss has built much up, its attention has been split across a wide enough territory that it isn't completely obvious that Weiss League development is superior to that in other areas. The Shannon League, for instance, has built up a large enough average level of development over their smaller territory that they feel fairly confident in the prosperity of their territories relative to the Weiss League. The net effect of all this is that although the wealth of House Weiss is often recognised, admired, and envied, very many of the nobles of the colonies underestimate the extent to which what House Weiss has been pushing amounts to a a new thing that changes the game.
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Apr 12, 2023 12:51
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nweismuller posted:The net effect of all this is that although the wealth of House Weiss is often recognised, admired, and envied, very many of the nobles of the colonies underestimate the extent to which what House Weiss has been pushing amounts to a a new thing that changes the game. So the guild is basically Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill in Moneyball. Hell yeah.
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Apr 12, 2023 14:33
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nweismuller posted:Tea is a specialty product of a few colonies' hydroponics, and is expensive in most colonies, limited by cost to nobility and rare usage by commoners. Sweets are generally fruit- or berry-based, and may contain additional sweetening in the form of synthetic sweeteners, which are not too very difficult to whip up in a lab. As Vega has a few lemon trees it has carefully preserved for luxury food, this means that lemonades, lemon pies, and lemon trifles are a particular local specialty as far as sweets go. Strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries are fairly commonly grown hydroponically, which makes them more available to the commons than lemons and other such exotics that require soil gardens, and fairly widely available across many colonies. Yep, it does! Thank you!
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Apr 12, 2023 16:19
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The Opportunity When Robert Hanley took over the Opportunity in 2526, the ship was already decades- perhaps a century- old. He was not its first master, but rather its fifth, the direct heir of Sarah Hanley who first served as the ship's mistress. Sarah Hanley had, according to family legend, been a daughter of an officer family in service to the Goodmans at Vega- a family that had slowly accumulated savings over generations of service. With the Hanley savings, a small fortune in viridium, supplemented by a loan from House Weiss and payment terms from House Goodman, in whose spaceport the small transport was manufactured, the Opportunity was purchased for Sarah, who worked a slow circuit back and forth across the few colonies of the Goodman Kingdom. In time, the debts the Hanleys had accumulated were discharged by Sarah hauling a mixture of goods- grain from Vega and Beta Eridani, chemicals from Kapteyn's Star, ore from Miaplacidus, and exotic crops and the work of skilled craftsfolk from across the kingdom. When the Goodmans were overthrown in 2500, the three Hanleys still remaining on Vega, including ten-year-old Robert, boarded the Opportunity on its next return to Vega, the entire family taking to the life of independent traders between the colonies. As Robert stepped off the transport into Vega's spaceport in his first visit to Vega of 2528, he was struck by how much had changed from his childhood. The spaceport roared with activity, bustling with cargoes shifted in and out of the capital of the Weiss Guild, and even the load of metal reprocessed by Vega's scrapyards that he was to pack into the Opportunity's cargo spaces was a load that he would not have seen in his youth. With the growth of the Guild, he had wandered further afield, serving new routes that were once too expensive, given the costs of passing over the borders of realms. Although the Opportunity was growing older, he still made the profits to cover her repairs and maintenance, and to keep his people clothed and fed in comfortable fashion. There was even a carefully-accumulated library of books and vids stored in the transport's small computer and a stash of viridium concealed under the deck plating- entertainment to pass quiet days in deep space and a treasure saved for the ship's direst need. With the load of thruster assemblies from Ross 128 and blue dust from Rotanev to be offloaded here, Robert even indulged the hope that a few more marks would find their way into the hidden treasure. Life, Robert concluded, seemed good, and he hoped to pass down a prosperous ship to his own young son when the time came.
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Apr 13, 2023 01:20
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That's a nice little vignette.
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Apr 13, 2023 01:32
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nweismuller posted:Life, Robert concluded, seemed good, and he hoped to pass down a prosperous ship to his own young son when the time came. It’s nice to see our realm prosper from the ground, so to speak.
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Apr 13, 2023 03:01
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