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This is an Urban Fantasy webcomic that Is a spin off of a Choose Your Own Adventure story, that I wrote after a brief stint in Science Fiction. Originally, the Choose Your Own Adventure story lived in The Game Room here on SA, but now that doesn't make sense anymore, because it's just straight fiction, not interactive fiction. I could probably post this in that thread forever, but I want to clean up the OP and move it out of The Game Room so people don't think it's a roleplay or something like that. It's made for the forums, not in like that magnanimous "I do this for you  " way, but in the "I literally only post this on the forums," way. I have a website for archival purposes if this place ever dies.I'm extremely receptive to feedback, and love comments, suggestions, and questions. I'm going to post the first 7 pages, and then continue to update this thread every week on Thursday. If you hate it, or don't think it should be here let me know. Chapter 1 Update 01: Trip     Author Notes: Uncle is a frog Marie is a Red Elf wtih Red Hair Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jan 19, 2023 10:34
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Chapter 1 Update 02: Fun and Games    Uncle is a frog Marie is a red Elf with Red Hair Jaina is a Green Felin Quinn is a Pink Elf The Tonetta Family is a crime family Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jan 19, 2023 10:35
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Chapter 1 Update 03: Subway             Author Notes: Marie is a red Elf with Red Hair Jaina is a Green Felin Tony is a blue Mariner Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jan 19, 2023 10:36
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Chapter 1 Update 04: Tied up        Marie is a red Elf with Red Hair Jaina is a Green Felin Tony is a blue Mariner The Tonetta Family are also known as The Red Claires, after their Matriarch. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jan 19, 2023 10:37
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Chapter 1 Update 05: Kitty Kitty               Marie is a red Elf with Red Hair Jaina is a Green Felin Tony is a blue Mariner Sabrina is a Tuxedo Pixie Cat The Tonetta Family are also known as The Red Claires, after their Matriarch. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jan 19, 2023 10:38
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Chapter 1 Update 06: Anyways, I start blasting     Marie is a red Elf with Red Hair Jaina is a Green Felin Tony is a blue Mariner Sabrina is a Tuxedo Pixie Cat Hot Wheels is a Skeleton The Tonetta Family is also known as the Red Claires, after their Matriarch The Cagliostro Family, is also known as the Emerald Vipers, after the dye shops owned by the Cagliostro Family. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jan 19, 2023 10:39
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Chapter 1 Update 07: Opening Salvo  https://bobapearlcomics.com/assets/00802.mp4  Marie is a red Elf with Red Hair Jaina is a Green Felin Tony is a blue Mariner Sabrina is a Tuxedo Pixie Cat Hot Wheels is a Skeleton The Tonetta Family is also known as the Red Claires, after their Matriarch The Cagliostro Family, is also known as the Emerald Vipers, after the dye shops owned by the Cagliostro Family. Some fun facts: Landa is italian for "Barren Lands" and Goddard invented one of the first model rockets at Polytechnic institute in Massachusettes! Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jan 19, 2023 10:40
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Oh yah, new thread smell.
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Jan 19, 2023 11:20
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   Marie is a red Elf with Red Hair Jaina is a Green Felin Tony is a blue Mariner Sabrina is a Tuxedo Pixie Cat Hot Wheels is a Skeleton The chemical sign is for Amphetamines, the Equation is for Photosynthesis, and Marie minus the Rod of Asclepius is the Rod of Hermes! Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jan 24, 2023 04:57
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We are also looking for new Beta Readers, if you're interested, hit up our Discord which is very tiny rn. https://discord.gg/8x7EArvXU2
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Jan 24, 2023 04:58
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Chapter 1 Update 09 - He's like a joker, from that hit movie, Joker.  -=Author Notes=- This happens to be the song Trombozo is singing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRgPj35FZS4 We are also looking for new Beta Readers, if you're interested, hit up our Discord which is very tiny rn. https://discord.gg/8x7EArvXU2 Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jan 27, 2023 04:53
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Chapter 1 Update 10 - Where There Is Smoke... -=Author Notes=- Webtoons dropped my comic again, so I'm giving up on the webtoons format. It's just not worth the effort anymore. Instead you get a pretty spread. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Feb 1, 2023 20:16
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Chapter 1 Update 11: Dead Pixels  -=Author Notes=- I kind of want to switch to this style, but I'm not sure if I like it because it's good or because it's new, I'd like to get other people's opinions, I was going for pixel art but I think I landed somewhere else. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Feb 4, 2023 09:00
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I prefer the old style, to me the new one feels like playing a game with anti-aliasing off, or like it's a low-quality scan of a drawing.
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Feb 4, 2023 20:15
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Roger, I am still playing with styles as always, but I think this way to draw eyes has some gas. Chapter 1 Update 12: Top of his Class  -=Author Notes=- We learn more about Clown College! I'm probably going to back to weekly updates soon, but I'm trying out a few styles. As always let me know what you think! Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Feb 6, 2023 10:13
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Boba Pearl posted:Sorry, I messed up, it's 2k unique ips (sometimes 3k, some people only check once every few weeks I think) this thread, 1k unique ips the BYOB thread 200 from my SA thread, Then another 1k from my site, though sometimes the site will spike up to 3k. Then another few hundred views and engagements on the tweets (though only 60 followers  We had a 9k Unique Visitor day at the website in January. I'm assuming a bunch of people have NOT put me on ignore, because we've only gone up since I moved my thread to BSS. Total Hits to date: 1556792 Total Unique Hits to date: 53710 Dropping Twitter saw no significant dip in Viewership Dropping Webtoons saw a slight bump in viewership Dropping Patreon saw no significant dip in viewership 2023 is looking good.
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Feb 7, 2023 09:11
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It is good that you have eyes on your neon craziness
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Feb 7, 2023 09:20
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 -=Author's Notes=- Sometimes a stylistic refresh is really what the heart needs to improve itself. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Feb 8, 2023 18:36
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Chapter 1 Update 14: One Million Dollars   -=Author's Notes=- Making a comic is a lot of work, luckily god invented cigarettes so you always have something to do with a comic characters hands. Thanks God, and Thank you Tobacco Companies. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Feb 16, 2023 03:10
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Marie is not a damage soaker, eh?
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Feb 16, 2023 08:14
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Chapter 1 Update 15: Pizza Time  -=Author Notes=- This is a story telling tactic where you scream the exposition at someone angrily. That way you only have to draw increasingly angry faces, and it seems exciting. I call it Scream-position. (Note, do not actually go with this author's note.) Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Feb 22, 2023 05:34
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Not sure why, but the comic doesn't load for me on SA, but it does when I open the URL in a separate tab. Dunno if it's just me though
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Feb 22, 2023 05:53
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I have no idea why that would be are you on the app?
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Feb 22, 2023 06:08
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Nope, I'm on PC atm. It loads for me now! Though I'm not sure if that's because I loaded the image separately, or if it was just a function of time.
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Feb 22, 2023 06:19
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I deleted and re-uploaded the file from the webserver just in case but who knows, I need to switch webhosts, and have been thinking about amazon because my current one can't handle the traffic and is chugging when too many people check the threads at once.
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Feb 22, 2023 06:20
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If you noticed anything hinky in the last few hours, we did a server migration to a knew host. It's finished now, woot.
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Feb 22, 2023 22:48
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Chapter 1 Update 17: Backsplash  -=Author's Notes=- Why yes, I do love the Yakuza games (well the one I played, the good one.) Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Feb 24, 2023 03:06
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Chapter 1 Update 17: Pack Up The Louis  -=Author's Notes=- Something to consider when choreographing a fight scene in a comic is how many panels of action are there. There' also pacing to consider. Are you properly pacing your fight? Are you giving everyone time to breathe, do people know where everything is happening, or is it even important at that moment? Fight scenes even with 3D models are a huge test of your skill as an artist. They require dynamism, anatomy, choreographing, planning, and placements. Maybe some people can just throw together a fight scene, but I find that if I don't plan the whole thing out, it can quickly go to poo poo. If you're an aspiring webcomic artist, think about your fight scene before you rush into it lol. This second scene ended up feeling a lot "realer" to me than I had first intended,and another thing when making comics is that I'm worried I'm being discordant with the tone. We have Uncle punching his own shirt off one moment, and then Marie lamenting blowing up an apartment building in the next. We have people surviving multiple gun shot wounds, but I'm trying to still set this up as something important. Having a moment to talk about being dead named and lamenting it, while also accepting it as a heat of the moment thing between family is a very real experience that I feel like may be universal for transgender people like myself. Its' like you accidentally turned your old name into a slur that can be used against you, and people can do it completely unwittingly because they simply didn't know, or that's what they've called you for decades. It's a powerful personal moment, and time will tell if I made the right call or not using this personal thing for my comic. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Mar 2, 2023 02:09
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 I greatly enjoyed the uh, karmic foreshadowing, here. Did not disappoint.
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Mar 2, 2023 02:39
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Rexxed posted:
It was one of those things where it just felt natural in the planning process lol.
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Mar 2, 2023 05:52
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fishboy there reminded me of malky dungeon and his bucky eggs
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Mar 3, 2023 02:06
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Yeah I really liked when the thread went through Malky Dungeon, though I've largely stopped trying to do accents with my writing.
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Mar 4, 2023 03:48
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In Episode 04 I called Tommy, Frankie, this has been corrected.
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Mar 5, 2023 00:17
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Chapter 1 Update 19: Valkyrie   -=Author's Notes=- One of my Beta readers pointed out that I re-use certain shots A Lot, and after a small tantrum I realized they were right. So if you notice things getting more dynamic after Uncle's fight. That's why. My life partner actually told me a trick to check for Dynamism that's really easy, just go through and see if the head is a consistent size between panels. If the head always takes up the same amount of space on each panel, then you're probably not being dynamic enough in your pages. I had a lot of fun with this one, playing with the lighting depending on the mood, the literal cloud and shadowed shroud that Claire is in. I also did a bit of reading on tea leaf reading which was fun. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Mar 6, 2023 14:53
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Chapter 1 Update 20: Mech  -=Author's Notes=- No, I don't know when I turned Trombozo into a twink. Spinnelope was a fun one to design (They're all fun ones to design tbh,) Which required making a whole new skin map just to make sure I get everything consistent from scene to scene. We also get to see Trombozo act like a normal person, which is kind of important if we're going to give him a relationship with one of the main characters lol. Today's update is so tiny because I updated on Monday and thought that I'd have another 20 panels done by today, and it'd be too big. Jokes on me of course, the opposite happened because of the ADHD medication shortage. What's that? You haven't heard of this? Well, for the last 6 months there have been dwindling supplies of Adderall, Ritalin, Vyvanse, hell even Modafnil have been rapidly dwindling. It hit the rural folks the worse, and has been slowing crawling it's way through the country. Now it's reached me, and without ADHD meds, I'm kind of a hot mess. Well more of a mess than normal. I learned a valuable lesson though, if I think I'm going to need to split an update, Then post one later, not one earlier. I think these panels would have been a nice little end cap to the last update. Ces la vie, such is life. See you next week On Thursday, in some Time Zone where it's Thursday. (I try to get these out at midnight-ish Wednesday, but spread around different time zones to keep things interesting.) Also, I'm very open about this but someone asked me about my process, and since I don't have twitter I don't know if it's still common knowledge. I make 3D models using custom skins, textures, and shaders (some purchased!) Then rig everything in Daz, draw over everything but the backgrounds, and then use AI to generate the backgrounds for me. Hey, if Eiichiro Oda and other comic people can rely on a team of artists to do the grunt work, why can't I do the same with the immortal machine?!  A lot of the extraneous details of Spinnelope's current outfit are to keep visual details straight. Watch how pieces of the leg laces, freckles, belly button piercing, and spider tattoo all line up with different landmarks of discoloration. I also gave her four freckles on one side, and three on the other, so I can tell when I'm messing up right and left. Beta Reader pointed out I should say why she looks like this. I have an irl foster brother who has vitiligo, and he's lamented before that there's no cool characters with it. He's one of the few people who reads my comic that I know IRL, so it's a little treat for him. Also assymetrical designs are pretty. Also I mean, look at her how could I not? Do you not see those cheekbones? The spider woumb tat? The lesbian manicure? She's perfect! That's really all I've got for this week's episodes of Boots. Well except I went through my e-mail and found some more poo poo to throw in here To answer another fan's question, all the horny poo poo is is now on Cohost. Which you can find at https://cohost.org/boba-pearl-nsfw. There's not much right now, but every once in a while I throw some poo poo up there. Another fan asked where I got the idea for Boots from, and to be honest it all started with Marie and The Advenutrer's League, which I wanted to be a crime drama that was a cross between Meg Mogg and Owl, and One Piece. I didn't really nail that vibe, but I did learn a lot about comic making. A lot of the DNA of that is here, including many shared characters. If you mean the designs themselves well. I'm big gay and want to draw incredibly hot people doing badass poo poo. I had created this huge world, and was like "I'm going to make my epic!" and that failed miserably. I'm trying to get the archives for Marie up, but I did NOT name the files in any sensible way, so it's slow going as I re-do each url by hand. That one died because it was my first comic ever, and I didn't really know what I was doing, I kept the notes for a re-boot though, though if I did boots again, I would probably completely avoid naming everyone after Characters in Marie and The Adventurer's League. To continue on, a big chunk of Boots comes from the end of my 2nd comic Steppe Into The Ring which we DO have archives for, when that one died it was very sad, but I learned a lot. It was right around when I was giving up on it I realized that the crime drama stuff is in my wheelhouse. This is my third comic, and mobsters are my FAVORITE poo poo. I think this story is a love letter to the God Father movies, Friday, and crime game plots, like GTA San Andreas, and my experiences as a transgender lesbian teen. lol this poo poo is way too long. This is what happens when you take my pills away. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Mar 9, 2023 16:21
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If you were following via rss, I fixed it, and the rss link is now https://bobapearlessence.com/rss.php
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Mar 11, 2023 10:25
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Chapter 1 Episode: 20 Character Actor   -=Author Notes=- I'm really excited, I've come into an opportunity to focus on the comic full time for the next 6 months to a year, and CSP 2.0 has completely changed how I make the comic (which you've probably noticed in the shift from the first half of the page to the 2nd.) I can't wait to show you all the stuff I've got cooking up. As always, please comment, either through the form you can find on the site, or by commenting.It's a shorter update as I'm participating in a minor surgery to cure my bpd called TMS Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Mar 17, 2023 16:32
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I liked this update as it set up a lot of character backstory without feeling like I'm reading a text dump since the characters are actually doing something. I hope your brain degauss works out well. I don't mean to be overly glib about something serious but I hope helps you.
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Mar 17, 2023 19:54
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Rexxed posted:I liked this update as it set up a lot of character backstory without feeling like I'm reading a text dump since the characters are actually doing something. I hope your brain degauss works out well. I don't mean to be overly glib about something serious but I hope helps you. I've had a few sessions and despite it triggering a manic episode / meltdown, I've actually recovered really well! I'm learning new things about myself, and which flaws were and were not the disease.
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Mar 17, 2023 21:17
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Chapter 1 Episode: 21 Character Actor  Alt Text Casey opens a door, Red Claires are unamused. -=Author Notes=- Trying to spend more time working on the comic making sure panels flow and the like, I'm also changing the update schedule to a "A page when it's finished, whenever that is." Instead of focussing on dead lines, I want to make every page perfect, even if every page isn't quite the same size. I really appreciated the comments I got recently, both publically and anonymously. Since I don't post on Twitter, Tumblr, or any other social media, the comments are really the only engagement I get. It's rather nice not having the pressure that the like and retweet brings, but sometimes it can get a bit lonely. I actually saw an extremely sweet comment in SAD a week or go that had just mentioned me in passing. I'm not 100% sure on goon's reputation, but I do know I've found one of the best communities that has helped me flourish into an amazing artist. Maybe the brain degaussing is making me a bit sentimental. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here, but I'm glad you're here, and I'm ecstatic you're all enjoying the comic. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Mar 19, 2023 03:09
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