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 About this game Age of Decadence has been in development by Iron Tower Studio since March 2004, unlike many games stuck in such a long development cycle it managed to actually be released almost a decade later, being officially released in October 2015 after surviving the early access hell known as steam green-light. The game uses the Torque engine which dates back to 2001 and Tribes 2 (lol) and it has just recently had its final update I think back in March which supposedly fleshes out the fairly hasty endgame upon release. It has some of the meatiest choices you can make in comparison to any of the current CRPG's released by Obsidian and the other Interplay splinter studios. While one of the more recent CRPG's I have played Tyranny have 3 or 4 different paths that can be taken to different endings, AoD probably has closer to 10 varying outcomes. Much like the original Fallout games your stats are incredibly important, you can easily play through this game as a melee bruiser and unveil a very fragmented and inaccurate picture of the world's history, and honestly know pretty much nothing about the world that existed before the apocalypse. However with a high intelligence and lore skill, you can slowly piece together like a detective the world that was and understand a ton of the game's rich backstory and do some really cool poo poo. Or with charisma and guile you can manipulate your way into a position of power. Setting Overview According to the Imperial Scrolls, the wicked kingdom of Q'antaar and the Empire were locked in a bloody magical war that devastated much of the known world. Each side called upon powers both arcane and divine, summoning Gods and other beings of immense power, whose contest ultimately destroyed both sides. Cities of the once glorious Empire lay in ruin, and bodies of the dead were strewn across the land. Centuries later, the world still suffers from the shadow of civilization's collapse. Where there once was unity, there are now factions struggling for dominance in the ruined world. Where there was once knowledge, there is ignorance of both science and magic. Where there was once chivalry and honor, there is only pettiness and betrayal. The Age of Decadence is set after the traditional RPG story, the great battle for the fate of the world has already been fought... and lost or even if it was a victory it was Pyrrhic at best. What has been left behind is a world slowly dying, with the collapse of the Empire and to an extent civilization all that is left is a handful of city states and villages slowly collapsing ever further into despair. With the fall of the Empire so did all of Magic and most of technology disappear from the world, the glories of the past are left buried under shifting deserts or lost in the forests and mountains at the edge of the world. Historians dig through the dust and scrolls to piece together fragments of the worlds once great technologies. Meanwhile the remnants of the Empire and its Great Houses futilely squabble to re-unite this broken world and restore the glories of the past that may never be recovered. ===About this LP & Getting Started=== I envision this to be a goon participation LP, (assuming there is any interest). While we won't vote on every little aspect of the game (oh god that would be difficult) How we will try to resolve certain major quest beats, general approach for sections of the game and pick the character archetype and what are goals should be. I.e should we be a lore master uncovering secrets, an assassin murdering everyone important or a simple soldier doing their duty to their commander. Now we get to make some choices, here is the character creation screen  So now we can make our first major choices of the game, The game have several loose classes, which will drive the game we are trying to play. If we are going to play a Merchant, probably should not try to fight every battle and generally talk are way out of things. In this game combat is lethal and while a dedicated combat character like the mercenary can and generally will be fine fighting even professional soldiers. A guy not built for fights will get owned by thugs with a rusty pocket knife in the streets. Here are the main classes, Merchant: This is the least combat heavy background, where we would spend most of our time talking and scheming.  Assassin: Combat Heavy, however we will get a decent number of infiltration missions, where we can get essentially skills checks on how well we can sneak and assassinate people using our crit/dodge combat skills.  Thief: Not as combat heavy, however you will see a little bit of fighting, also most people hate you and we will spend alot of time skulking.  Praetor: Agent of the Noble Houses, we start off with access to important people, and a Praetor should be expected to be able to Schmooze and also handle themselves somewhat competently in a fight.  Mercenary: Pretty much the inverse of Merchant, there will be lots of fighting including big clusterfuck battles and to ensure we have the stats for fighting our civil skills will suffer.  Loremaster: Actually understand the past, you don't start working for everyone and can pretty much freelance the story. Will mostly be built around the Craft + Lore Skills so we can figure out ancient tech. I would say the Loremaster is probably one of the better backgrounds/play styles for a first run-through.  While the classes themselves don't lock us into a certain play style, they do set us on our initial starting area quest and line up who we will start out working for. However over the course of the game we generally will be given the option to stab our employers in the back or work against their interest and work for different groups. Just for the record here is a list of the major organizations. Factions quote:Noble House Daratan - Once the largest and most influential Noble House, controlling seven provinces and more than 20 legions, House Daratan was almost destroyed during the War. Today less than 100 people still loyal to the Daratan name control a small town named Teron, that has definitely seen better days. As House Daratan draws its last gasp, some within are preparing for one last fight, to shift the balance of power and restore the noble House at any cost. ---------------------------------------- So Now Voting Begins for the next ~48 Hours~ Just post the Name Class You want to see on this play through, in event of a tie we will have a run off of the top 2 choices, and then we can start this poo poo! Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 23:02 on May 22, 2017 |
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May 22, 2017 01:09
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From playing the demo I know the combat in this game can be pretty brutal so a mercenary named Butch Deadlift.
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May 22, 2017 01:21
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I really like this game although the combat difficulty can be brutal at times. I suggest Konrad the Assassin.
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May 22, 2017 01:23
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I suggest Bill Nye the loremaster.
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May 22, 2017 02:59
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Mycroft Holmes posted:I suggest Bill Nye the loremaster. I'll second this. Let's learn the truth of everything.
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May 22, 2017 04:15
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Let's go with a Praetorian named Sulla Goonius. A good mix of combat and diplomacy to start us out.
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May 22, 2017 04:40
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Bacillus Anthracis the Merchant. Play everyone against each other, make them trust only us, then destroy them until even the ruins are dust.
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May 22, 2017 05:30
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Spartacus the Grifter What do you mean they wound up cutting the Grifter class? Aww, dammit. Mycroft Holmes posted:I suggest Bill Nye the loremaster.
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May 22, 2017 05:37
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Agreeing on Bill Nye the Loremaster
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May 22, 2017 05:39
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Oh man, I could never get into this game. I hit the combat and broke my teeth immediately. So I'm going to go for Bill Nye the Loremaster
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May 22, 2017 05:41
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Doopliss posted:Spartacus the Grifter They didn't cut the Grifter, I just don't want to play one on an initial playthrough essentially.
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May 22, 2017 06:00
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Genocyber posted:mercenary named Butch Deadlift. this is my vote
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May 22, 2017 06:06
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Mycroft Holmes posted:I suggest Bill Nye the loremaster. LEARNING!
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May 22, 2017 06:23
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I used to work on the same websites as Saint Proverbius/"Vince D.Weller" -- the chief/only designer of this thing -- 15 years ago and given what I he wanted from games at the time I rather decided against playing this one. I very much look forward to the schadenfreude of watching someone else experience it, though. Loremaster sounds good to me. Get some infodumps and die early!  Suggestion: please use timg tags very, very sparingly. Constantly pausing to click on things is a pain when reading. Either the image is something I need to look at to follow the post and should be a regular img to not break the flow, or it's not important and should be summarized. If you need to post a giant 4k-by-4k map, sure, timg away. For regular screenshots, please don't.
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May 22, 2017 06:26
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Jack2142 posted:They didn't cut the Grifter, I just don't want to play one on an initial playthrough essentially.
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May 22, 2017 14:56
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Xerophyte posted:Suggestion: please use timg tags very, very sparingly. Constantly pausing to click on things is a pain when reading. Either the image is something I need to look at to follow the post and should be a regular img to not break the flow, or it's not important and should be summarized. If you need to post a giant 4k-by-4k map, sure, timg away. For regular screenshots, please don't. PLEASE. Timgs kill SSLPs
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May 22, 2017 15:04
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wedgekree posted:Agreeing on Bill Nye the Loremaster Wholeheartedly.
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May 22, 2017 16:55
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Siegkrow posted:PLEASE. Timgs kill SSLPs I will for the following updates and ill just have cropped normal images, I just didn't want to clutter up the screen with a ton of nearly identical character creation shots / main menu.
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May 22, 2017 18:57
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From reading the thread title, I initially thought this was a Kamen Rider game. But then my disappointment washed away when I remembered that Decade is rear end. As for voting,gotta go with Bill Nye the Loremaster.
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May 22, 2017 22:05
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Genocyber posted:From playing the demo I know the combat in this game can be pretty brutal so a mercenary named Butch Deadlift. This. I am one of the many who got the game, couldn't figure out the combat, and then tossed it away in disgust as it kept throwing numbers/skill checks I didn't have. Looking forward to seeing a competent playthrough.
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May 23, 2017 01:16
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Loremaster Leibowitz I should really get this game.
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May 23, 2017 01:34
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I was really interested in this game on Steam, it looked cool, but I was put off by the long development time. i'll be keen to follow the LP Also, throwing my vote behnid Bill Nye the Loremaster
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May 23, 2017 02:20
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So 24 Hours left in voting, and so far the tally is 11 Loremaster Votes (Lead By Bill Nye 10:1) 3 Mercenary Votes (Butch Deadlift) 1 Praetorian Vote (Sulla Goonius) 1 Merchant Vote (Bacillus Anthracis) 1 Assassin Vote (Konrad) Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 05:43 on May 23, 2017 |
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May 23, 2017 05:33
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Night10194 posted:Loremaster Leibowitz Wait, I'm changing my vote from Bill Nye to this. Leibowitz is such a good name.
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May 23, 2017 07:41
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Bill Nye the Loremaster guy
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May 23, 2017 09:07
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Night10194 posted:Loremaster Leibowitz Voting for this. Loremaster is the way to go.
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May 23, 2017 13:01
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Night10194 posted:Loremaster Leibowitz This.
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May 23, 2017 13:56
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Mycroft Holmes posted:I suggest Bill Nye the loremaster. Nth.
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May 23, 2017 14:09
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Just thought I'd mention this is 75% off on Gog at the moment.
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May 24, 2017 08:49
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Alright, The Votes are in and Bill Nye the Loremaster has won by a pretty significant margin so welcome to Let's Play Age of Decadence: Bill Nye the Lore Guy ============================================= So Here is our intrepid Loremaster, and master of science Bill Nye  So before we get off to the start I should probably explain some of my choices on Bill Nye, in Age of Decadence there are multiple types of skill checks in this game, some are determined by skills e.g. Lore which can be leveled up. Yet others are determined by our base attributes which with one solitary exception cannot be altered. Some of these attribute checks will mix with skills or other attributes. So for example, we might want to talk a thug out of stabbing us from coins so the threshold might be Charisma + Streetwise = 10 or something of that nature, usually this is only for more difficult checks though. Strength: Is not that important for a loremaster, it boosts our physical damage if say we wanted to use an axe. Its a pretty desirable stat to pump up on combat focused characters, but our guy is not going to be a melee powerhouse. Strength can be used as a intimidation check in conversations, or at times to say punch the ancient door that won't open well... open. Luckily with our Lore focus we should in theory be able to fix said door so it opens for us. Dexterity: Determines your action points, this game uses action points kind of like most turn based rpg's usually a normal attack is about ~4 action points so we should be able to make two attacks a round (if we do get in a fight) and dexterity is used in conjunction with constitution on a couple of attribute checks. Also sometimes we will have the opportunity to climb stuff, or sneak around it isn't that important for a loremaster, but if we were playing as a thief or assassin this would be our primary trait. Constitution: Determines our hit points, also there are some pretty hard checks on our constitution of which 6 is pretty much the minimum to avoid things killing you outright. While the hit points aren't that important, I want us to be able to survive some potential physical checks. Perception: Is an important stat as a Loremaster as without it we would miss a ton of small details in this game, be it environmental factors like a crumbling wall we can dismantle to find a secret passage, or simply being able to perceive say imperfections on a "totally genuine" ancient artifact. In combat it helps us in a high perception boosts are ranged hit chance, and the few fights we might get in I "hope" we can use a crossbow or some other ranged weapon to avoid getting stuck in. Intelligence: Our bred and butter, Bill Nye is the smartest man in the world why? Well his show says he is and dammit he is gonna save the world from the age of decadence. Intelligence works like in the old fallout games of giving us more skill points on "level up" and with level 10 intelligence that will give us 30% more skill points this playthrough which is massive, and will be a big help. Also lots of lore and crafting checks use intelligence as well, and there are a couple really hard checks late in the game where you "need" intelligence ten to succeed. Charisma: To a Grifter, Merchant or Praetorian this is a hugely important stat, it essentially gives a boost to your skill checks in conversation, while technically we have a penalty I don't think it is actually that severe at level 6, I have done a little bit of a test run before this and I didn't see a difference, there are a couple of bonus skill points via "training" we will miss, but those are mostly not that helpful and high charisma will help us say trick people, but it is more important if we we're going to try to politick in the high courts, and while we might... well I don't think it will hurt to much. In regards to skills, I will bring them up as we use them, the important thing to know is Lore is how much we know about ancient technology and can explain it, Crafting is how well we can make equipment and also how well we can fix up old machines. With that out of the way let's, launch the game  So what you're saying is there is a chance for Bill Nye to Save the World by combating religious fanatics? Sweet!  Welcome to Teron, our lovely doomed hometown... except the doom happened sixty years ago and now it looks like Ancient Detroit.  In this world it turns out the history majors are in demand! Suck it Business Majors.  Now gaze at the Glory of a 15 year old graphics engine, does this bring back flashbacks to Runescape? Well it does for me at least. Here we are in our boss's backroom normally this area you need to sneak into with lockpicking, but since we're his apprentice we start the game here, and might as well look around.  Hmm? I nothing here, but I wonder why Feng is looking into this guy I wonder who is paying him. One of the the nice things about this game is its pseudo-isometric and you can rotate the camera so you don't have the weird awkward see-through walls like you have in say the Shadowrun games.  Sweet, we were able to level up our lore skill, this game incentivizes you to look around and explore environments, luckily while this graphics engine is archaic its not as bad as those old adventure games where you had to hunt pixels like a demented madman. Also a Roman Legion was about ~5000 dudes, so good on Galbo being able to win against 4:1 odds, I bet Feng is researching this for Lord Antidas, considering he is facing entire legions and he has maybe 100 soldiers left under his command keeping order in this crappy town. Oh next to the documents in those boxes is a book on lockpicking so we leveled up that skill as well.  Sometimes as a loremaster you just have to waste a motherfucker, Feng might not be the best loremaster in the world, but if you can't beat them I guess poison their tea and dump them in a ditch. Also he has a great shtick being the "mysterious asian" peddling exotic knowledge, it works on new age yuppies and I guess it works on Roman aristocrats as well.  Yeah, in a world where the past is important every idiot thinks they stumbled across a splinter of the true cross, but then again we have to figure out when something is actually valuable or not? So let's see this Gracius guy and see if this map is worth anything or not.  Sweet, let's visit the local dive bar and meet with a mysterious man trying to sell us poo poo... no wonder Feng thinks its junk.  Okay that's easy we got the map although I failed the trading check to ensure I got paid up front which I forgot to capture.  Time for some lore dumps! Thor Agoth sounds like a pretty cool guy  Well Thor Agoth seems pretty cool, I bet we're gonna hear more about him.  Probably should head back to Feng get him the map and wrap up our starting quest.  Oh, well you never know this might not be a waste of time if we find something useful we can let Feng know, he's probably gonna be annoyed we don't have the money for the map.  Maybe this actually is a waste of time  Wait... magic glows in the dark and is dangerous? That sounds suspiciously familiar.  Yeah magic in this game is not safe at all and actually pretty loving terrifying when we encounter it.  Well that sounds promising, a amulet that might negate lethal levels of radiation?  Yeah lets try to under sell it however this sounds like a good find, a pity we don't have gold from the map. Streetwise as shown here is a useful dialogue skill, it actually is probably the best in the game since it is pretty much a generic street smarts skill. It is really helpful in dealing with gangs, poor people and just regular people in the world. Alot of this times it is almost as helpful as trading in getting random guys like this to haggle.  Cool we talked him down to 200 Imperials, which is nice... if we had the money. Luckily we will be able to come back and buy the amulet before the innkeeper throws him out let's get back to Feng.  Well hopefully he won't get too bad...  Okay that went better than I thought it would, at least we got skill points and finished up the initial quest might as well get a good night's sleep...  Okay, wait... why aren't we going to get any money from the trader?  Oh that escalated quickly, I wonder who wants him dead... on an aside the starting mission for the assassin is to kill the trader and get the map, the thief steals the map from his room, the grifter smooth talks it away from him and the mercenary finds him dead in a ditch and picks it up, the Praetorian just buys the map from Feng. Its kind of cool and alot like how Dragon Age Origins has all the origins happen except Duncan is only there to save the player character in one.  Oh... I guess there is a rival loremaster coming in on our turf. This guy might uncover all the bullshit Feng has been selling Antidas for years.However do I really have to kill him I have terrible combat stats, then again this guy Cassius is a fellow nerd so shouldn't be too tough. I might even be able to just scare him away or cut a deal.  See what I mean when I said Feng doesn't gently caress around he wants us to ice this dude. ================================================= Up Next: Teron City Blues So FIRST IN GAME Goon Vote: What should we do with Cassius A) Kill Him, I mean I don't think he will be tough B) Scare him away (if we can) C) Screw Feng lets see if this Cassius guy can make a deal After that we will also explore Teron in all its dumpy glory! Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 09:44 on May 24, 2017 |
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May 24, 2017 09:29
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I think we should play let's make a deal with Cassius.
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May 24, 2017 14:11
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Feng's a prick. Let's make a deal.
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May 24, 2017 14:28
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First rule of business is keep your corners. Kill him.
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May 24, 2017 15:10
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Make a deal with Cassius.
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May 24, 2017 15:21
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Scare him. If not, make a deal.
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May 24, 2017 15:49
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Kill Him
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May 24, 2017 17:33
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Kill someone? We are Bill Nye, we educate, not eradicate! Scare him Away.
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May 24, 2017 17:40
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Let's scare this jackass off.
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May 24, 2017 23:21
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Scare him.
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May 25, 2017 01:18
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 17:02 |
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Mycroft Holmes posted:Kill someone? We are Bill Nye, we educate, not eradicate! Let's see if we can make a deal with Cassius.
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May 25, 2017 01:28
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