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Latest Update: The Black Sword Chapter Three Odin Sphere Odin Sphere is a 2D side scrolling RPG created by Vanillaware and published by Atlus back in 2007 on the PS2. Somewhat of a spiritual successor to Atlus' game Princess Crown, Odin Sphere is a game that combines a wonderful fantasy story with stunning visuals, designs, music, and some pretty decent voice acting. Even if it can be a little over the top at times. It was one we fell in love with the moment we saw it. What we are actually playing is Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, an HD remake of the game that just came out on the PS4 and PS3 this year. It brought the already great visuals to the next level so expect a lot of mentions of it. The remake also fine tuned some of the design aspects of the game to make it a little more enjoyable. After a few videos I'll bring in a list so everyone can see them. The Let's Play Calli will be the one playing the game while I'll be there to help commentate while she focuses on the fighting and where to go. We've already done a full play through of the game so there won't be a lot of mucking about. So let's keep this a casual thread. We'll be filling the down time of commentary with just about everything. Until we get to some big plot points there isn't much to talk about, we'll keep the commentary focused on the game as much as we can and where possible. Otherwise, expect us to gush about things and being a general couple about life. But seriously? NO SPOILERS. None. Absolutely not. While the levels are simple, the story is what really gives this game it's drive. So let's keep that a surprise for when we get there. Now you may be asking, “Michael, isn't there a lot of eating in this game?” To which I say. Yes. Tons. A good chunk of this game is just watching the character stuff their mouth full of berries, fruits, and other foods that there is an abundance of. It's how you level up and I'll be cutting none of it out. It's easy enough to skip, but it makes for good down time that is otherwise spent just running around beating up enemies. As for updates. We're hoping to have at least one update out per week. If I get a really good backlog, I'll increase this. Also! As this game is just filled with food and eating, we've decided to get a little bit of thread participation. Submit a recipe and we'll give it a go and tell you what we think of it. In most cases we'll probably butcher it in some way, but I'm sure it'll be fun. Make sure to keep the recipes rather cheap, we can't afford to go spending a fortune on a meal sadly. And Now The Videos The Valkyrie The soul shines poudly after falling in battle. The birds have a belief: This is the only method of earning an immortal soul. The Prelude Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Epilogue The Pooka Prince Destiny can appear like a pitfall beneath one's feet. Who can say that tomorrow will be just like today? Souls have been known to vanish as easily as a lost coin. Prelude Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Epilogue Fairlyland Once upon a time, in a starlit forest far, far, away. Fairies live under the protection of a queen resembling flowers, like a fleeting fantasy. Prelude Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Epilogue The Black Sword Raise that sword and the shadows draw closer spreading the stench of death, but tenderness may exist in those inhabiting the darkness while distress envelops those who would oppose it. Prelude Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three The Eating Videos Gwendolyn Cornelius Mercedes Recipe Videos Goofey Burger -Submitted by Scalding Coffee Goofey Burger Redux Part 2 - Submitted by Scalding Coffee, Edited by Callifornia2 (Calli) Pot Roast Minus the Vegetables - Originally Found Online (Michael Messes Up) Simultaneous Let's Plays Because we are gluttons for punishment it seems, here's some other Let's Plays we are currently doing. Every Mario Party - Both of us No no Kuni: Wrath of the White Wtich - By Calli Pokemon Snap - By Michael Warmal fucked around with this message at 13:35 on May 19, 2017 |
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Aug 16, 2016 14:18
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Eating Habits Gwendolyn: Valkyrie Princess: Ice Magic: Deserves a Better Father Entrusted with a powerful spear topped with a psypher by her dying sister. All she wants is to receive her fathers love. But deep down inside, she knows this is unlikely even if she were to die for him and his cause. Perhaps she will one day find love from another source. The Valkyrie is known for mostly battles and not eating. But even a young Valkyrie princess is able to eat meals fit for an army within the span of a few minutes. The sheer vast amount of calories is then used to create the energy necessary to give ones life in battle.  Cornelius: Pooka Prince of Titania: Lightning Magic: Deserves a Nice Warm Bed Prince of Titania and in love with Velvet, Cornelius soon finds himself mysteriously turned into a Pooka. All he wants to do is be with Velvet, much to the distaste of his father the current King. Apparently it's a bad thing to want to be with a "commoner" or even the Princess of a destroy kingdom. Now he must return home and find his way back to his previous form. While Pooka look like rabbits, they are a different creature entirely. This is how they are able to eat vast amounts of fruit and vegetables and not die from the large amount of sugar.  Mercedes: Fairy Queen: Projectiles: Deserves some Respect She can come across as very brash and sometimes foolish. But that is just her young heart showing. Losing her mother takes a huge blow on her, but it doesn't stop her from stepping immediately in her mother's shoes. Even if she doesn't have all the tools to be queen, she won't back down. Being a fairy requires a lot of energy. Flying around near constantly she burns through calories as fast as any buff warrior. Lots fine dining helps her keep her status and her strength.  Oswald: Shadow Night: Dark Magic: Deserves Freedom Feeling an ungodly amount of obligation towards his adoptive father, Oswald has done many questionable things. Gaining an incredible power from Queen Odette, he will strike down whomever he is told. But, this is just a fate that has been given to him. His heart plays a role as well. Perhaps love is all this dark heart needs. True love. Fueling an inhuman power within himself, he needs to eat as much as he can whenever he can. Leaving little room for anything else in his stomach. Warmal fucked around with this message at 02:49 on May 6, 2017 |
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Aug 16, 2016 14:20
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Looks more mobile than the first version. Just murdering things at a fast pace.
Scalding Coffee fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Aug 16, 2016 |
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Aug 16, 2016 15:45
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I know one person who'll be really interested in this LP  It's not me, but I'm almost as interested so I'll be following along as well.
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Aug 16, 2016 16:25
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The sheer number of quality-of-life improvements that they made without significantly altering the basic gameplay is ridiculous.
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Aug 16, 2016 17:26
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Ok, the game's cat is named like my cat. Definitely following
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Aug 16, 2016 18:06
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More games should let you just take a break and pet a cat. For those of us cursed with less obliging landlords.
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Aug 16, 2016 19:35
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Was that cat petting animation in the original version? I love Socrates, what a good kitty. I love how appropriately theatrical the cutscenes are. Like, right after you choose to start reading Valkyrie, you can hear the orchestra warming up.
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Aug 17, 2016 00:55
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Alice has a couple other animations in the chair if you just sit, sans cat or book.
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Aug 17, 2016 01:44
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We will absolutely be showing off more about Alice later on. The small details put into this game are worth the exploration and time spent in looking for them.FAT BATMAN posted:Was that cat petting animation in the original version? I love Socrates, what a good kitty. The cut scenes do a good job reminding you that this is indeed a story, or production, or all going on in Alice's head. I imagine the music changes are all brought in by what she feels is appropriate.
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Aug 17, 2016 06:04
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Valkyrie Chapter 1 Despite having lost many soldiers, the Aeris army attacks the Fairy Kingdom once again in hopes of winning back the Cauldron.
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Aug 22, 2016 14:17
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I wonder how much mythology they've mixed together with this? The Norse overtones are obvious, but pookah are from Irish folklore and the Cauldron sounds like the magic cauldron in the Mabinogion of Wales that would restore the dead to life. The flaw, of course, was that throwing someone living into it would instead kill them and destroy the cauldron. Perhaps that's relevant? (That same story also features The Best English King, Bendigeidfran, who was a giant so tall that when he went to war against the Irish he just strode across the Irish Sea rather than needing to board a ship.) For the record I've never played Odin Sphere or otherwise experienced the plot, so all I can do is strap in for the ride and occasionally make guesswork based on real-world legends.
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Aug 24, 2016 11:14
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I didn't know that Pookah were a thing outside of this game. That's really cool. I'll do some research and talk about the similarities once it becomes a little bit more relevant. It feels to us like this game was taking a lot from folklore, as well as playing off of some fairy tale tropes. After all, this is a book that Alice is reading in her attic, so it isn't too much of a stretch for it to have these sort of elements in it.
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Aug 24, 2016 14:10
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Perhaps there's a little more lore to this than I know still. I'll do some research on the Cauldron when that becomes a little more prominent as well. Until then. It's time to hunt the witch! Valkyrie Chapter 2
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Sep 1, 2016 13:48
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There are icons that appeared under your level that displayed the duration and level of various ailments. That is handy.
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Sep 1, 2016 16:44
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RIchard Epcar (as Brigan) doesn't have much range but he can really sell what's in that range.  Canonically Odin did in fact have one eye; the other was given so that he might learn the gift of wisdom (in a divine sense). And that likely explains how he was able to find Velvet soon after Gwendolyn* did. And as for the ring, that's probably a reference to the Ring Cycle of Richard Wagner, a four-part series of really long operas about the German variant of the Norse end of the world. There's a lot to unpack there, some of which you'll likely want me to keep under wraps because you know more about Odin Sphere itself than I do. But suffice it to say for now that Wagner the dragon guarding a ring is probably a reference to the giant/dragon Fafnir who guards the cursed ring of Alberich. In particular, the curse states that until the ring is returned to the dwarf Alberich, it will engender greed for it in those who do not own it or anxiety and calamitous misfortune in those who do. The tradeoff is that using it will enable its user to rule over others so long as they renounce love, which Alberich himself was perfectly fine with doing. In general "Germanic" is an umbrella under which fits various cultures and languages like Norse, German, and English. So when I talk about something "Germanic" I'm referring to the wider umbrella. But when I'm talking about "German" I'm instead referring to the more specific grouping that comprises what are today Germany, Austria, and part of the Polish identity. (I'm sure that an actual ethnographer would school me on the subject.) *Oddly enough, "Gwendolyn" is also not Germanic but Welsh. Doubtless this means something but I dunno what, since Vanillaware could easily have grabbed another Germanic name out of the general canon. (Even "Griselda" is of Germanic origin.) NGDBSS fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 17:16
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As much as I really hate Brigan, as a character he's really good. They make you hate him so much. From his actions, to his kind of creepy design, to the way he treats everyone. It's a really good character. I hate him so much. I would like you to keep most of the rest of that under wraps. As it does sound like it'll have to do with the story later on. Which is really cool, but since it will come into play later on we'll save it for then. What I would like to say though, is that if Odin gave up his eye for wisdom, perhaps why this King Odin is the only one able to travel to the Netherworld to obtain the crystals. It's not that he's just so strong, it's because he has been given the knowledge to do so. That in particular is never specified in the story. So it'd be interesting to see other's thoughts on that take. It's possible Gwendolyn is just a chosen name. As it just means fair or blessed. I wouldn't say she's very blessed at the moment. Seeing how things are kind of going for her.
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Sep 2, 2016 14:08
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Perhaps I'm just expressing the usual human tendency for apophenia? Regardless, I'll keep the rest of that business under wraps as advised.  You're the ones showing off the story, while I'm just a somewhat more knowledgeable onlooker.
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Sep 2, 2016 16:09
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My goodness, the changes to inventory management alone make me wish I'd played this over the original, and the rest of the differences seem to be outright improvements for the most part, while still feeling like the same game. It'll be interesting to see how well that holds over the course of the rest of the playthrough.
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Sep 3, 2016 05:01
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Maybe you should have played a harder mode. You have 20% leeway in some S ranks.
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Sep 3, 2016 05:22
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At one point we do plan on showing Classic mode. As the game came with the entire original on it, just in case you didn't like the changes for some reason. And as the levels go on, our score slowly drops. That 20% leeway is possibly going to drop really soon.NGDBSS posted:Perhaps I'm just expressing the usual human tendency for apophenia? Regardless, I'll keep the rest of that business under wraps as advised. Once we get farther and are out of future spoiler territory we'll be able to explore things a whole lot more.
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Sep 3, 2016 15:05
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I somehow keep managing to do these double posts. If only I could time my responses sooner! So today we get to the main eating mechanic. Yes. The main eating mechanic. So far we have only seen the beginning of Gwendolyn eating everything in sight to gain power. Oh, also we need to rescue our sister. Valkyrie Chapter 3 It's at this point we start to truly understand Gwendolyn's character. Up until now she's just done whatever her father says. But now we see that she'll do whats best for him. Even at the cost of herself. Which you can argue is the same thing, but I feel like there is a slight difference. Up until now she did things because she wanted him to love her. But this is an act to make him happy, probably knowing that that won't get her love in return. I love this arc for Gwendolyn and it only gets better.
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Sep 4, 2016 17:42
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This is certainly some fun storytelling. But considering that Gwendolyn still has 3 chapters to go means that she's not out of the fight just yet. Consider me hooked.
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Sep 4, 2016 19:57
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Ooh, another(edit: Richard) Wagner reference. When's a good time to do some comparison between the game and the various original works, anyway? At the end of this particular plot thread, or later?
NGDBSS fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Sep 5, 2016 |
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Sep 5, 2016 04:49
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Probably once we see what the comparison is about. As it stands we haven't meant Wagner yet, and it's not really a spoiler that we will eventually. Any character or thing mentioned will be seen in the story. So perhaps hold off on Wagner once we get to him. Sorry to say that some mythology talk will need to be held off on for a fair bit yet.
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Sep 5, 2016 15:20
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I was referring to Richard Wagner, actually, instead of the dragon in this game. (I've edited that in above.)
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Sep 5, 2016 15:33
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That bugbear looked like it had similar shadow effects as that shadow warrior guy. Maybe the dragon should have been named Godot.
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Sep 5, 2016 17:02
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Confit is said more like 'con-fee', because French. Enjoying the LP so far, though. I've seen about half of the original game and the story is so well done and engaging, but the gameplay improvements done for this one look like they make it a much better game to actually play. It's always great when an HD remake adds those kind of quality-of-life improvements.
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Sep 5, 2016 18:51
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Scalding Coffee posted:That bugbear looked like it had similar shadow effects as that shadow warrior guy. That is a keen observation. It is a very similar shadow effect. Darkness just kind of seems to have a life of it's own in this game. As I never played the original game, I don't yet know how much different it is to play. But like I said, we will go into classic mode and I'll get to see first hand how drastically different it is.
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Sep 6, 2016 15:19
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I don't know if you would notice the NTSC/PAL issue.
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Sep 11, 2016 05:31
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I did a quick look and it seems the main issue with NTSC/PAL was some major slowdown. As of yet we still haven't played the classic mode so I'm not sure. It will probably depend on what version they put on, or if they went back and fixed some of the issues. Valkyrie Chapter Four Valkyrie Chapter Five So. We have a double update this week because Gwendolyn is continuing on her journey and perhaps developing more into herself, rather than being a marionette for her father. And we have the return of the shadow knight. Also this begins the reason Calli really enjoys this game. We'll probably be talking about Gwendolyn and Oswald a lot in the next couple of videos. Warmal fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Sep 14, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 03:52
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This is a fantastic Something Offal thread about the dietary habits of valkyries. The LP is pretty good too.
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Sep 14, 2016 06:47
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Looks like the dragon is playing by Lightning Returns rules. The last dragon gets a large boost from all the other dragons who died. I always preferred the genocide run. A shame you can't wear its crown and play keep-away.
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Sep 14, 2016 20:28
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This protagonist may develop a habit of saving people whom she intended to kill initially. That king has some amazing abs though... Alavaria fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Sep 15, 2016 |
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Sep 15, 2016 01:59
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His torso looks like two parts that move independently.
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Sep 15, 2016 02:41
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This game is really cute, and you two are adorable. Between this and the Fallout 4 LP, Husband and Wife Tag Team LPs might be my new favorite thing.
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Sep 15, 2016 16:37
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It would be hilarious if the Cauldron wasn't nearly as useful as Odin thought (like it's infinite, but only gives you a really small stream of the resource). For someone who gave up an eye for wisdom, he isn't very good at handling people either... At some point I bet he's going to admit that the spell didn't actually have the part to make her fall in love as that would not make sense for his plan, too. You know, since she brought it up as an excuse and all... Between her, Oswald and Velvet we just need one more person with a colorful jewel weapon to form an RPG party. Alavaria fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Sep 15, 2016 |
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Sep 15, 2016 17:51
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Hook up the cauldron to one of his battleships and aim it at his enemies.
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Sep 16, 2016 04:55
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Seeing as we haven't seen the cauldron in use, it could all just be speculation. Everything is just hype but in reality it just gives like 1 phozon a day or something. That would really tie all this together. But if it was useful, and attached to the battleships, then fighting that thing would be an even bigger pain in the rear end. But hey! We have an update. Valkyrie Chapter Six Not saving anyone this time, but we do need to correct a mistake we had made. This level really shows how nice those backgrounds are. But it also shows how vague clues can really end up increasing game time when it probably shouldn't. RickVoid posted:This game is really cute, and you two are adorable. Between this and the Fallout 4 LP, Husband and Wife Tag Team LPs might be my new favorite thing. I'm glad you're really enjoying this. We're hoping to continue on beyond our current three threads down the line so there should be a lot more of us together.
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Sep 20, 2016 14:20
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Well, now I guess that make two of "us" who have been made use of by our fathers. Also, wow now that thing is not only the key to the probably deux ex machina it's also your wedding ring so uh, yeah. Alavaria fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Sep 20, 2016 |
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Sep 20, 2016 17:52
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