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Oh boy, big TBXD effort-post ahead  Jade Star posted:they still take it away permanitly after the second level or so. i know, i reloaded the game to try and keep it. True. But then again, Carter post-Prelude is more Steve McQueen in Bullit than Don Draper... for Reasons. You know what I mean if you finished the game. SlothfulCobra posted:The Bureau was okay. It was pretty fun, and ended up being one of the best squad shooters out there. I was surprised that nothing seemed all that phoned in after the 7-year development hell it went through. Things were just disjointed towards the beginning, but it all came together in the end. I hope you mean in terms of the development cycle, because the story sure didn't. We were forced to rewrite the narrative at least twice in the last 6 months of development... After the cutscenes and VO were locked. Zomborgon posted:May I ask the Bureau players- did you ever have problems with ammunition count? I kept running out at critical moments, no matter how careful I was. Sectopods and Mutons don't really respond to melee, but it seems like I didn't mathematically have the firepower to take them down. We originally had an amazing Melee attack that tore the literal skin off of every enemy and sucked their (metaphorical) soul into your cool space-cuff... and then someone killed it because he thought it was "too complicated". As far as ammo goes, if you're running out you are either shooting too much/too fast, not letting your Agents do any work, or refusing to swap guns. As wierd as it may seem, try shooting less - your Agents will kill the hell out of enemies if you give them both the same target, and don't forget their powers! 2 Sniper Agents with Critical Strike can insta-kill anything up to a Commander on Normal. Mutons and Sectopods can be a little ugly, but you should have at least one Agent with Weaken by default. Poof, no more armor, kite them at your leisure. Sylphosaurus posted:I've said it in other threads but the Bureau would have been so much better if they had kept the bizarre enemies and bought the Delta Green license for it instead of using the Xcom label. If only that was an option at any point. If only.
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Aug 8, 2014 00:37
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SilentW posted:Someday someone will release our 2010 Alpha build that was an investigative FPS. Someday. That would be great. I was really interested in The Bureau up until I heard it had been changed into a third-person mini-squad thing. Early on it sounded like it was doing some interesting stuff.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:52
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SilentW posted:We originally had an amazing Melee attack that tore the literal skin off of every enemy and sucked their (metaphorical) soul into your cool space-cuff... and then someone killed it because he thought it was "too complicated". I assume that guy had no input on Enemy Within's development, otherwise we would have not gotten the Kinetiboosh Strike.  How that could possibly be too complicated is beyond me, though.
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Aug 8, 2014 02:21
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Add me to the list of people of bought and are (slowly) playing The Bureau. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, just enjoying the vibe and slowly getting the hang of using abilities and slowdown correctly. It's actually pretty fun and intense once you get rolling. I did wonder about something though. When I place an ability marker I have to navigate it around the terrain and up and down stairs rather than just placing it directly with the mouse. It feels like an odd decision in some ways. Maybe something to do with consolitis? I was thinking of trying out a controller, I think it might help for some reason. Either that or I missed something in a menu, I tend to do that.
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Aug 8, 2014 08:49
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Maybe he ment animation-wise it'd be to complex? As cool as it'd look to rip the skin off a Muton you'd also have to do it for every alien that has skin to rip off. Besides we all know Sectoids don't have souls to rob anyway.
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Aug 8, 2014 10:24
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Hey. So it turns out that thing about a country not leaving if they go to full panic really close to the end of the month IS actually bullshit, because I had france go to red panic two days before the report, and they hosed off.
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Aug 8, 2014 12:26
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heenato posted:Hey. So it turns out that thing about a country not leaving if they go to full panic really close to the end of the month IS actually bullshit, because I had france go to red panic two days before the report, and they hosed off. Yeah, I've had a similar experience. I think 14 days is a hard cap and if the end of the month comes first there's a chance for the country to leave anyway. Or it could be a bug, who knows?
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Aug 8, 2014 12:39
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According to ufopaedia.org, a country has a 50% chance of leaving with 5 panic, or 100% it is marked as 'not helped'. http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=The_Council_(EU2012)#Defections
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Aug 8, 2014 14:23
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SilentW posted:If only that was an option at any point. If only.
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Aug 8, 2014 14:27
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The Bureau is sounding pretty good. I'd like to give it a try when I get my PS3 back from repairs.
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Aug 8, 2014 15:32
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SilentW posted:I hope you mean in terms of the development cycle, because the story sure didn't. We were forced to rewrite the narrative at least twice in the last 6 months of development... After the cutscenes and VO were locked. That explains far, far too much of what bothers me about the Bureau. Blind Sally - I wouldn't consider it 'pretty good.' It does have some interesting and/or good elements, absolutely. The problem is, those do not ever, ever gel into a cohesive or coherent "good" experience - because it has a lot of flat out bad elements, too. For everything it does that's cool, it does something else that is stupid. Sometimes both at once. The kicker is, it got pretty close. I just finished a mission where the combat was fun and tough and pretty complex. I got to this on the second to last mission in the game. That's when it hits the groove. we might as well call it The Bureau: Missed Potential. also bad mouse aim in TYOOL 2013? unforgivable at the end of the day, it's not unplayable, but I'm not sure it's worth taking 8 hours of your time away from another, better title you also probably want to play. That said, I'm like 90% of the way through the game and I plan to finish it, so, whatever. Psion fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 17:36
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Blind Sally posted:The Bureau is sounding pretty good. I'd like to give it a try when I get my PS3 back from repairs. It was worth the 5 bucks during the steam sale.
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Aug 8, 2014 17:42
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I made this during Jade's stream yesterday and I thought the thread might like it.
Fatbot fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Aug 9, 2014 |
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Aug 9, 2014 01:51
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How do you not have an avatar or something? I need to fix this.
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Aug 9, 2014 04:30
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Blind Sally posted:The Bureau is sounding pretty good. I'd like to give it a try when I get my PS3 back from repairs. I honestly enjoyed it. Except for the loss of The Hat. I get what you mean, but for God's sake, that hat. That VEST. I wish I had not lost either.
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Aug 9, 2014 05:33
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Operation Deadly Canadian Polsy A fairly easy mission today, as it is every day when EXALT are involved. Skippy joins us to chat about things like Mimetic Skin, playing wiffle ball as a kid, and Ricky Gundersons mother. Since this the first field test of Mimetic Skin, may as well talk about it some. Mimetic skin turns a soldier invisible under certain conditions. Conditions that are pretty easy to follow, but have one or two details to be aware of. The first is that the soldier needs to be out of sight of any enemy units at the start of their move. The second is that they need to end their turn in high cover, and yes, this combines with Low Profile for possibly the most broken skill combo in the game. Lastly they need to stay in cover. If a stray shot or explosive blows away their cover then the soldier will lose invisibility. Obviously aggressive actions like shooting will reveal them as well. The way Mimetic skin works was really counter intuitive to me, and I'm curious why they chose to implement it as they did. Requiring you to not be seen beforehand make a little sense I guess, but then it cloaks you as you very likely run through open space with nothing to hide against even as you charge right next to an enemy. I just always figured it would make more sense for Mimetic skin to cloak the soldier after their move, instead of before it. I suppose in practice this would only make it take one movement more to set up perma-invis running around, but its always felt a little weird how it works now, cloaking before you move into the high cover you're supposed to be using to camouflage yourself with. The tactical opportunities for invisible soldiers is pretty obvious right away. It makes covert operation missions very, very easy. Not that they really needed it before, but if you sweat the small stuff like operative extractions then it is there. For your main body of soldiers though it is invaluable. Being able to safely dash forward (as long as you can find a piece of high cover) in reveal the map if you're in a hurry is great. Even if you're not in a hurry finding and not activating a pack of aliens because you spotted them with an invisible soldier is great and really lets you set up and prepare to ambush them. Invisible people also make the best spotters for Squadsight snipers, and better still if they are ITZ as you pick one off before activating the group. Or rocket/grenade a spotted group of enemies before they activate. Essentially Mimetic skin lets you get the jump on the enemies in a lot of circumstances and comes in handy in a wide array of situations. The only downside to Mimetic Skin now is the cost. The Meld cost of it was significantly rebalanced at some point. Before it was the hands down best gene mod to put on every soldier, and didn't cost too much to make a 4-6 man squad of invisible soldiers. Now at 65 meld per soldier it's a pretty hefty investment of resources, and something you will unlikely be able to apply across the board to your soldiers. If you still want to go for it, I'd suggest sticking it on assaults primarily for the times when they need to move a long distance, scouting, closing on an enemy but don't have a shot that turn, or just for the critical chance boost from attacking while cloaked. After that, maybe supports to keep your medics safe from enemy fire so they can patch people up. Your uses and applications may vary.
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Aug 10, 2014 10:37
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In regards to neural dampening: I agree that it is great for most purposes, but I've had good experience picking the other one for your squad leader, combined with the officer training school that substitutes his will. Because of that officer school thing, my squad leader is invariably one of, if not the, highest will person, so he handles psi attacks pretty well already. And as long as he isn't a sniper, he is out front, dicovering the map, meaning psi aliens have a good chance of triggering the gene mod (being circumspect because I cannot recall is we unlocked it yet). Besides the leader though, neural dampening for everyone is good.
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Aug 10, 2014 11:35
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Jade Star posted:Operation Deadly Canadian Combined with Gunslinger and Low Profile this can make your covert operative pretty ludicrous, too. Aside from getting that one achievement, I can't really see any good reason to ever use the other upgrade, though...
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Aug 10, 2014 11:39
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about Mimetic Skin
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Night10194 posted:I honestly enjoyed it. Except for the loss of The Hat. I get what you mean, but for God's sake, that hat. That VEST. I wish I had not lost either.
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Aug 10, 2014 11:54
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Skippy is making Nittien sound like a Metal Gear boss with that backstory of hers. Question as well, does the fan fiction have to be about one of your soldiers? Or just any one random person we come up with (original character do not steal)
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Aug 10, 2014 12:44
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Neural Damping, not Dampening. You're not making their brains wet here.
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Aug 10, 2014 15:07
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notZaar posted:Neural Damping, not Dampening. You're not making their brains wet here. I'm pretty sure a towel can block mind control.
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Aug 10, 2014 16:16
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Your experience with Titan is why I only build Skeleton and Ghost Armor these days (occasionally carapace in the early game if I really need it). I just can't give up on the extra movement.
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Aug 10, 2014 16:20
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Honestly the thing with Titan armor is that while it makes you move more slowly on paper, it actually leads to you playing more aggressively and really using your movement more because you're basically insulated against any single alien one rounding you. It's especially amazing on Assaults, because they get a vast pool of health thanks to that one skill. And yes you are immune to being strangled in Titan Armor.
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Aug 10, 2014 16:34
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"XCOM FAN-something posted:"Good work, Squad One. Congratulations on another successful mission. Central out."
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Aug 10, 2014 16:59
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Jade Star posted:The only downside to Mimetic Skin now is the cost. The Meld cost of it was significantly rebalanced at some point. Before it was the hands down best gene mod to put on every soldier, and didn't cost too much to make a 4-6 man squad of invisible soldiers. Now at 65 meld per soldier it's a pretty hefty investment of resources, and something you will unlikely be able to apply across the board to your soldiers. If you still want to go for it, I'd suggest sticking it on assaults primarily for the times when they need to move a long distance, scouting, closing on an enemy but don't have a shot that turn, or just for the critical chance boost from attacking while cloaked. After that, maybe supports to keep your medics safe from enemy fire so they can patch people up. Your uses and applications may vary. My preference for Mimetic Skin is my snipers (for times when flying doesn't help), then Heavies (because I tend to scout by sprinting them to heavy cover anyway), then maybe Assaults. Supports get Bio-Electric if anything at all (I put them in Ghost Armor anyway). Naturally, priority for the A team. Feinne posted:Honestly the thing with Titan armor is that while it makes you move more slowly on paper, it actually leads to you playing more aggressively and really using your movement more because you're basically insulated against any single alien one rounding you. It's especially amazing on Assaults, because they get a vast pool of health thanks to that one skill. Since they gave immunity to poison and fire (and strangulation) to ALL of the tier 3 armors with EW, I honestly don't see the point of Titan armor anymore besides being comparatively cheap and available earlier. It's only 2 health more than Archangel, and Titan and Archangel both get the same health bonus from the Assault's Major skill, making it 16 vs. 14 instead of 10 vs. 8 for those soldiers. Compared to being able to fly, which in addition to easier movement, provides low cover (and height bonus to aim if you use fuel instead of just popping off the ground at the end of a move) wherever the gently caress you want if you can't find suitable high cover, that extra 2 health is peanuts. It's not a bad idea to grab some Titan Armor early to get that survivability bonus straight away, of course, but once you've got the research and the resources, replacing them all with Archangel/Ghost if and when you can is a no-brainer. Back in EU though? I loved sticking Titan on Heavies and Assaults, so they could go where noone else could. Take cover inside a poison cloud that's on fire? No problem. But now anyone can ignore poison with a medkit strapped to their hip, and anyone in any tier 3 can sit in a fire and enjoy warm nuts. They carry packets of peanuts for a mid-mission snack. Get your minds out of the gutter. 
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Aug 10, 2014 17:27
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Some time ago, I actually found a pretty well-made XCOM fanfic. It is, however, a crossover with Mass Effect and it got discontinued in the freaking climax: XCOM: Second Contact It does really well at characterizing a post-Etherial War mentality, especially in how foreign relations and future scientific development work out. If anyone does read it and wants to know how the ending would have played out, the author's notes got posted here: http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/xcom-second-contact-me-xcom-fifth-thread.268597/page-34#post-12390781
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Aug 10, 2014 18:25
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Whoa. An 81 Will 92 Aim Assault at Lieutenant? If Shellshock doesn't prove to be psychic I'll be very disappointed.
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Aug 10, 2014 18:26
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Zomborgon posted:Some time ago, I actually found a pretty well-made XCOM fanfic. It is, however, a crossover with Mass Effect and it got discontinued in the freaking climax: I think I remember that one. Is that the one where humanity goes straight into the committing war crimes business after the First Contact battle?
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Aug 10, 2014 18:27
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"Hoss" Delgado was arguably the closest thing you had to a deadly Canadian on that team, given he's from France. Maybe he spent some time in Quebec. Also, I felt kind of bad for those two EXALT operatives that got burned and exploded, but that's what you get for selling out humanity.
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Aug 10, 2014 18:29
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I like Neural Damping, but the other option tends to be my preferred. While Damping cancels a Mind Control, throwing it back into a controller's face with raw damage from Feedback is considerably more fun, and if it doesn't outright kill the controller{Which would require considerable willpower on the part of the target}, it certainly softens them up considerably. Tagged because while I'm fairly certain we have this, I'm not 100%.
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Aug 10, 2014 18:40
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kaosdrachen posted:I think I remember that one. Is that the one where humanity goes straight into the committing war crimes business after the First Contact battle? They drop neutered chryssalids, yeah, but they use that as leverage to pretty much end the Batarian slave business. "Everything is a grey area" gets to be a bit of a theme where XCOM and ethics intersect. But that's a derail I won't go into further.
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Aug 10, 2014 18:43
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Lazy Bear posted:I like Neural Damping, but the other option tends to be my preferred. While Damping cancels a Mind Control, throwing it back into a controller's face with raw damage from Feedback is considerably more fun, and if it doesn't outright kill the controller{Which would require considerable willpower on the part of the target}, it certainly softens them up considerably. You get Damping off Berserkers, so we just got it at the start of the latest video, and Feedback off of Sectoid Commanders, so you get that after the alien base. I think Jade has all of the genemods now. Myself, I like to put Damping on my Assaults. Everyone's had that moment when they were going to capture a Sectoid Commander or an Ethereal, and he MC'd the guy with the stungun.  Feedback goes on everyone else, because holy poo poo the free damage.
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Aug 10, 2014 18:51
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The free damage is nice, but what's really great is putting all of their psionic abilities on cooldown. It neuters them for a few turns.
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Aug 10, 2014 18:56
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TTBF posted:The free damage is nice, but what's really great is putting all of their psionic abilities on cooldown. It neuters them for a few turns. It's crippling for Sectoid Commanders. Absolutely crippling. Even more ruinous for other things we haven't yet seen and thus cannot be discussed. Lazy Bear fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Aug 10, 2014 |
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Aug 10, 2014 19:03
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X-com Fan-splanation posted:The Russian EXALT Cell was known for their unorthodox means of keeping soldiers alive. After implanting many of the troops with a form of hyper-adrenaline, they were then given orders to not move from their posts until they were absolutely sure that X-COM were in the area. Since EXALT troops were known for playing pranks on each other, using various forms of stink bomb and lasers to simulate grenades and lasers, this meant that there had to be visual confirmation of an X-COM soldier for the troops to move out.
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Aug 10, 2014 19:04
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Just figured out how Finn keeps getting back into EXALT without them noticing: they are all male. Do the math.
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Aug 10, 2014 19:13
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Shouldn't that make her stand out even more?
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Aug 10, 2014 20:00
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Now I want a Reuben.
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Aug 10, 2014 20:17
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Drachir D Nalem posted:Shouldn't that make her stand out even more? I'm imagining EXALT as white-knighting goons. "But Jerry, we have an advisory that a pink-haired woman was responsible for infiltrating and destroying three other cel-" "What, just because she's a woman with her own fashion sense you don't want to hire her? Sexist." "*sigh* Fine, whatever. I'm transferring back to Argentina in a week anyway."
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Aug 10, 2014 20:17
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