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Joey "Nah, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. But, uh, anybody whose plan doesn't involve high-velocity impact might want to follow me down, because I'm pretty sure I can't really. You know. Steer." Intellectually, she knows that she'll be fine. However, there's a great big gap between knowing and believing, as the massive surge of adrenaline is currently informing her nervous system. She then proceeds to attempt to follow Tam's path as best she can. Using Harder than This to ignore one source of physical peril, i.e. fall damage. pre:Joey Endurance, Night, Fire HP: 10/10 AC: 1 Effort: [C][][] Inf: 2/2 Dom: 0 Attack: +4 1d10 Fire damage (magic) or 1d8 mace (physical)
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May 13, 2017 23:09
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Joey Joey stands up from her crater beside the river, hands shaking from the leftover adrenaline, covered in dust from the impact. "Holy poo poo, what just happened. That was insane." She walks over to the riverbank to try to get a little cleaner--wash her hands and face, anyway, since she can probably slap the dust from her clothing well enough. "Okay, so. Looks like everybody made it? Anybody know where we are?" She checks her phone, reflexively, in case anything interesting happened while they were fighting for their lives in Uncreation. She's had a cell phone since she was six, okay? Habits are hard to break.
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May 14, 2017 15:10
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Joey "Well, yeah, I know that it wasn't going to have reception, but... just in case, y'know?" She's not that dumb, just a victim of wishful thinking. "At least we have our music and cameras, right?" She perks up a little when she hears they might be in Dulimbai--now she's on firmer footing. "Sure, I'll take point, but anybody who's feeling friendly is welcome to come help out." code:
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May 14, 2017 17:53
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Joey Joey does actually speak Ren (since that's pretty much the only thing her grandparents speak), but in the interests of discretion, answers the man in Trade Cant so that the rest of the party can also understand what the hell is going on. "Hello sir! Can you tell us where we are?" Aside, and in Pelagic so the fisherguy can't understand, she asks the group, "So what do we want to tell this guy? Also: do we actually want any fish, and do we have any money?" code:
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May 15, 2017 12:53
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Joey Joey definitely does not sigh in frustration, although she wants to. She can tell how this conversation is going to go. Politely, she replies, "Yes, I can see we are at the docks. I meant to say, what town is this? We are lost, and we have no maps." No maps that she knows about anyway. Maybe someone still remembers tenth grade world history? code:
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May 15, 2017 13:08
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Joey "Ah yes, Yizhao province. Thank you, that helps very much." She explains basic Dulimbai geography to the parts of the group that don't already know (again in Pelagic), and says, "Anything else we want to know from this guy?" Rolled a 23 on my int check via Discord, so yeah we know where we are. Anyone who wants to know more from this guy should take over, as I won't be back for 8 hours. Assume Joey is letting someone else take over the conversation, since the guy clearly thinks she's a dumbass. code:
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May 15, 2017 13:29
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Joey Joey grudgingly accepts Enno deciding to step in like the Auntie Wei actually reminds her of a lot of her actual aunts, so she cheers up quite a bit after reaching the inn. She also finds Miss Xia charming, and chats happily about life in the Bright Republic and her job. She also asks about Ming's life here in Dulimbai, since she knows a lot of her own knowledge is based on refugee stories a few generations out-of-date, and she's interested in how day-to-day life is different compared to life in the Bright Republic. As for the poetry: when she hears the offer, Joey replies, "I would love to hear some of your poetry, Miss Xia. I don't have much of a talent for it myself, but if you would be gracious enough to overlook my clumsy efforts, I would be delighted to share some of my own in return, if you wish." code:
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May 16, 2017 00:32
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Joey Joey's aware that Ming's poetry isn't great, but since hers isn't a lot better she listens with every indication of enthusiasm and enjoyment. It's enough for her to see Ming perk up a little bit--it's obvious that she's, well, dying, and Joey's not going to poo poo on anything that makes her feel better about it. At Ming's cue, Joey searches back through her memory for any kind of poetry she can remember writing in high school, since that's the last time she had to do this kind of thing. Eventually she drags up the best one she can remember, which is about a young woman, torn between following her heart's desire and embarking on a dangerous path that will lead to personal fulfillment, or following her parent's wishes for her to remain safe, but where she will only ever be contented. It's unclear from the poem which the speaker chooses, especially since Colonel Auntie would probably have objected to the original ending, which was a lot clearer about carpe'ing the diem. (She got a B from her high school poetry teacher on this one, good use of parallelisms and nature metaphor, but the rhyme scheme was poo poo and the metaphor was too obvious). It's also clearly, embarrassingly autobiographical. At some point during this, Joey tries to subtly inquire about the monastery, since it's a little odd that her parents wouldn't let a young code:
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May 16, 2017 13:34
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Joey As Ming is being ushered off to bed, Joey says to her, "Thank you both for sharing your excellent home with me for the evening, and to Miss Xia especially for such fine conversation over breakfast. I hope that if my companions and I should have occasion to return to Gongfang, that I should be so lucky as to share a meal with you again." She bows, respectfully, and goes to meet with the rest of the crew. Hopefully someone will have some more information about what's going on in this town, since from what she heard, she's got a really bad feeling about that monastery. code:
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May 17, 2017 04:22
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Joey While the magistrate is addressing the crowd, Joey is quietly translating for the parts of the crew that don't speak Ren. As the speech goes on, she's starting to get visibly disturbed, and mutters, "This is so hosed up, why would selling these kids to the monastery even get their families out of a tax duty anyway?" As the woman descends, Joey moves through the fleeing crowd like a boat moving upstream, assuming that her friends are beside her. She asks them, "Can anybody tell what she's saying? Also, what the gently caress?" Hopefully whatever gift Enno was using to talk to Chin the Fish Guy can decipher what she's screaming about, but just in case, Joey starts talking as soon as she's within reasonable earshot (i.e. not shouting across the entire yamen square). "Please, madam, calm down. We are travelers here, but we want to help you if we can. What's wrong?" code:
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May 17, 2017 23:37
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Joey As Fei Lun's story is told, Joey gets quietly angrier at the blatant injustice of it all. Clearly Real Man Xiao and the monastery need to be... dissuaded from further experimentation before any more lives are uselessly sacrificed, and it seems like the magistrate is in it up to his eyeballs. When the messenger from the magistrate arrives, she smiles at the man, fate handing her a perfect opportunity. "I would be delighted to speak to the honorable Magistrate about any dangers to this fine town, although I of course cannot speak for my companions." The expression on her face makes it extremely clear that she wants all of them to go with her; however, she'd understand if you have a good reason to do otherwise. If there's anybody in the party who doesn't speak Ren, assume Joey's either summarized or quickly translated the important bits for you. code:
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May 19, 2017 04:47
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Joey The magistrate is definitely not what Joey expected. (Granted, what she was expecting was pretty much something out of those awful operas her parents liked, with the beard-stroking obviously evil villains, but still). This... might require more subtlety and less open flame than she had planned. She addresses the magistrate. "Honorable magistrate, my friend is correct in that we would prefer to deal with the problem of the monastery as soon as possible, before anything else Master Xiao may have... unintentionally released can come back to haunt your town, and as such time is of the essence and we must most regretfully decline your most generous offer of hospitality." She's trying very hard to be circumspect and polite--hopefully, if she gives him enough rope, he'll have the good sense to hang himself in front of witnesses. Also, her grandparents would probably slap her for being rude to a real, official junzi in the flesh, even if he was an evil dick. "However, if we might ask a few simple questions of you before we depart, it would help us immensely--as the magistrate, you must of course be aware of the comings and goings of this town, and any information you might have regarding the troubles that have been occurring would be greatly appreciated. Miss Fei told us something about Xiao's methods, but if you know anything of his history and skills, we would have the advantage in any confrontation." And just in case that load of bullshit doesn't work, she adds, "Also, may I be the first to say that your Pelagic is amazingly good. Where did you learn it from?" Flattery might not get you everywhere, but it might be a start. Obviously anyone who wants to stay for the banquet and/or pump the guests for more information is welcome to do so, but Joey sees a lot more benefit in getting on top of the monastery problem ASAP. Problems that aren't literally killing people can wait. code:
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May 20, 2017 06:53
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Joey "Thank you for the information, Magistrate. If you think Big Feet Zu might have information on how to pass the mists, we can certainly go investigate him." She's heard enough about the bandits to make her willing to go on this detour, especially if she can get recorded evidence of the Magistrate being actively complicit in whatever experiments are going on. If she heard what he was trying to cover up correctly, the Dulimbai Regent might be directly involved in this, which makes everything more complicated. If the Regent is directly ordering this, the Magistrate might not have a lot of choice in the matter. "We appreciate your discretion regarding our involvement in this matter, especially if the... Governor is the one who sent Master Xiao to Gongfang. Of course, if Xiao is overstepping his bounds we would provide you evidence to take to the Governor--certainly he can't have meant for any experiments to harm your people." Or, any evidence that implicates the Magistrate can be used against him with the people. Either way, she wants recordings. code:
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May 20, 2017 14:53
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Joey Joey might have to catch up to the group a little, because she definitely spent 5 minutes convincing the meat bun guy that her pocket change was a) real money and b) enough to buy a bun. gently caress yeah, questionable meat bun, just like Mama used to make. However, she's back with everybody else by the time they roll up on the... street wrestlers? What's even going on there? She asks everybody, "Okay, who wants to break up the sweaty shoving match over there so we can find out where Zu is?" code:
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May 23, 2017 04:23
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Joey Well, this was kind of funny right up until they said "slave pens," but now she's angry. "We have business with Mr. Zu, so if you bring us to him and then kindly gently caress off, I might forget that I want my friend Mr. Boulder to break your arms." loving slavery, what the gently caress. Now she knows why her grandparents left. note: if Roth didn't actually share that info with the group, I will edit this post. code:Pinechild fucked around with this message at 13:21 on May 23, 2017 |
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May 23, 2017 13:19
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Joey Joey scowls at Enno, and snaps at him in Pelagic. "Okay, first off, xiaoren aren't slaves and they don't think of themselves as such; slaves can't take the exams. Yeah, there are some, but not 'a large portion.' Second off, slavery is still bullshit regardless of cultural background." There's actually a strong streak of ex-slaves in the Dulimbai refugee community, for obvious reasons, and as such there's a corresponding strong streak of anti-slavery sentiment, even moreso than you'd usually see in the Bright Republic. When the two guys start to bicker among themselves, she rolls her eyes, and is about to step in when Enno lights them up. Her eyes widen, and she resists the urge to run over and check to make sure the guy is still alive--she figures Tam would have a better handle on that than she would due to sheer proximity. She nods at his speech, and follows up: <"All we want is to know where Zu is. Nobody but us even knows that we're having this conversation. As far as I'm concerned, if you tell us where he is, Zu never even has to know how we found him--we knew the general area from the magistrate down in Gongfang, we just wanted more specific directions. And after we talk to him, Zu might not even be in a position to take offense even if he did find out."> One good thing about Enno's hair trigger is they're probably pretty sure we're serious now. <"Have you ever heard of the phrase, 'good cop, bad cop'? It's a saying from our home country. Right now, you're talking to good cop--"> she gestures toward herself <"--and good cop doesn't want to hurt you any more than you've already been hurt. However, if you'd rather talk to bad cop...."> She gestures towards Enno, and whispers at him while her face is away from the thugs, "Don't hit them with lightning anymore unless you know exactly what's going on, or this is going to badly." code:
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May 24, 2017 03:29
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Joey "Can we maybe, I don't know, wait until the guy actually threatens us before completely flipping our poo poo this time? There's a pretty decent chance that we can solve this problem by just saying, 'Hey, we'd like to volunteer to go to the monastery, can you show us the path?' Simple, and it leaves us the option of thundershocking a dude if they decide not to cooperate." code:
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May 25, 2017 22:47
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Joey Before they reach the compound, Joey decides to try to clear the air with Enno. "Look, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. It's just... we had those guys in custody, they would have talked eventually, and we didn't really even need them to talk, but you decided to jump to the equivalent of tasering them in the nuts because you weren't getting your answers fast enough. I've got years of training that boil down to 'don't do that or you're fired and you can kiss your career goodbye,' so cut me a little slack, okay?" Sorry, Enno, you're stuck with the honest cop instead of Dirty Harry. As they reach the compound, she weighs the benefits of sneaking in, but decides there's not really an advantage to doing so, as none of them are particularly stealthy. They probably have the firepower to overcome a rice broker, regardless of how many thugs the guy has, and they can always go around and open up the slave pens once Zu is She follows up Johnny by adding, "If he needs a reason, tell him we're here about the monastery." code:
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May 27, 2017 04:27
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Joey The Boulder's been handling this very well, in Joey's opinion, so up until now, she's been happy to go along in his (occasionally literal) wake, ready to step in if additional firepower is needed. The crowd of bodyguards ready to attack means that time is now. She says to Enno, "Good job with Zu, by the way. Shame that you couldn't convince them all, though." To the mob, she shouts, <Anyone who doesn't want to be hurt very badly should step aside now. We have no further quarrel with Big Feet Zu.> She's planning on leaving via the slave pens, but they don't need to know that. As she says this, the air around her begins to shimmer, sparks appearing and disappearing. She spreads her hands at her sides, and they fill with flames. Spending effort on my turn to invoke Burning Rebuke (p. 41), which causes any foe that attacks me while angry or impassioned to take my fray die in damage before each attack is resolved. Mobs take this damage straight. I am also readying an attack with fire for the first person to come at us (+4, 1d10 damage), but only if we are attacked. code:Pinechild fucked around with this message at 17:02 on May 28, 2017 |
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May 28, 2017 15:55
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Joey It has been, let's be honest, a rough couple of days for Joey. She's trapped thousands of miles from home, she's had to negotiate politely with terrible people, and, well, Enno. It was pretty much inevitable she was going to snap, and getting charged by the Dildomonger over there was the last straw. "You know what? gently caress this. I am done with being loving polite." The heat shimmer in the air around her erupts into an aura of burning flames, and she pitches the fire in her hands at Dildo Guy, intending to melt his balls off. !roll d20+3 RPBotBOT - Today at 3:39 PM @Pinechild rolled 8. (5, 3) !roll d8 RPBotBOT - Today at 3:39 PM @Pinechild rolled 3. Joey attacks with fire with an 8, which is likely to miss unless their AC is much worse than she was thinking. However, the first one to attack her gets hit with 3 damage if a mob, or 1 point if not. Further attacks will be rolled as needed, since she's not dropping Burning Rebuke until she's good and done. !roll d8 RPBotBOT - Today at 3:52 PM @Pinechild rolled 7. Her regular Fray roll, which is apparently also a thing, does 2 points of damage to the group, Dildo Guy first. code:Pinechild fucked around with this message at 21:53 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 21:44
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Joey, extremely loving pissed While normally getting hit is just a part of getting in a fight, Joey loving refuses to be murdered via lovingly sculpted bronze ballsack. As she sees Lord Dildo Man's strike descending towards her skull, she screams in rage and actually headbutts the loving thing, cancelling out the force and creating a small shockwave. She continues screaming, a wordless howl of rage at the world that continues to poo poo upon her, and throws a stream of fire in Lord Dildofucker's goddamn face. Spending a daily effort to miracle Defy the !roll d20+3 RPBotBOT - Today at 8:08 PM @Pinechild rolled 16. (13, 3) !roll d10+3 RPBotBOT - Today at 8:11 PM @Pinechild rolled 10. (7, 3) I can't tell if her fire attack hit or not (don't know his AC), but if it did, Lord Dildo Man takes !roll 1d8 RPBotBOT - Today at 8:16 PM @Pinechild rolled 4. However, she does 1 point of damage through her fray die. code:
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May 31, 2017 02:18
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Joey, trying something new Seeing as how killing it with fire isn't working terribly well, Joey decides to try something new Joey commits effort for the scene to use drat Their Eyes (p. 47) against Lord Dildo Man, who gets a hardiness save versus. That's her action, so no fireball this turn. !roll 1d8 RPBotBOT - Today at 8:27 AM @Pinechild rolled 1. !roll 1d8 RPBotBOT - Today at 8:27 AM @Pinechild rolled 6. Her Burning Rebuke crit fails again, meaning no damage from that, but her Fray die does 2 points of damage to the mob. code:
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May 31, 2017 14:29
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Joey well that certainly happened Joey says to Roth, "Do we even know if all of these people are from the village? They might not have anyplace to go, especially if they were sold by their families or something like that." She wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these slaves were from at least a few villages away, since seeing your former friends and neighbors as slaves tends to be somewhat awkward. To the slave pens, she says, <We have come here to stop the useless sacrifices being made to the temple on the mountain. If you wish to be free, we will tell no one where you have gone if you run, but if for whatever reason you wish to stay we will protect you from Real Man Xiao and his machinations, and you will suffer no retaliation from Big Feet Zu from our actions today if we can help it.> She's going to be surprised if more than half of them stay, but she's not going to turn them out into the wilderness if they genuinely want to stay in slavery. <That being said, does anyone know when the next time the monastery will send for 'volunteers' is? We need to know how much time we have to set up a plan. If anyone knows anything about the monastery either, that would be very helpful.> It might be a good idea to ask the guards that one too, but she might as well start here. code:
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Jun 6, 2017 04:48
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Joey Joey is 100% on board with the Boulder's plan, and also 100% willing to let him do the heavy lifting on convincing the thugs and ex-slaves that this is a good idea that they definitely want to do, as he's clearly better at it than her. What she is good at, however, is hard work and social order. Being unimpressed with what passes for a police force in Gongfang, she begins setting up discussions in the village square about how the ex-thugs (and a few interested ex-slaves) can gain respect and honor by keeping the community safe and protecting their neighbors, including the basics of policing and non-paranormal crime fighting. When she's not doing that, however, she's helping the new villagers set up their fields. Even with the Boulder clearing the stones and using them to build the houses, there's a lot of heavy, backbreaking work to get the millet and corn into the ground, roofs built, wells dug, and so on. However, when she's helping, the villagers seem to feel like the work is, if not actually easier, then less arduous--she seems to impart a sense that this is a temporary hardship, that must simply be worked through in order to prosper later, into their bones. Backing up the Boulder as best I can without any kind of actual fertility or water word, I am spending my 2 dominion in order to create kind of a local field of Endurance over the new village, or as much as I can get with 2 points. Like the narrative said, the effects are subtle and mainly serve to make it easier to till the fields and make the new village sustainable. If this is not possible as a field effect, then Joey will be blessing their plows and tools in order to make them less breakable, and do it that way, but I personally like the localized effect better. code:
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Jun 12, 2017 23:28
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Joey A day after the city is finished, the pantheon is in one of the meeting rooms that the Boulder so thoughtfully set up. Torches flicker on the wall with smokeless flame, the best thing they have right now to substitute for real lightbulbs. Joey sits at a chair around the central stone table, her arms crossed in front of her. "Gentlemen, now that Zu is... out of the picture, we need a plan to deal with the monastery. From what I can see, we have four options other than simply trying to brute force our way through the fog. First, one or more of us pretends to be the new slaves to be transported, while the rest of us pose as guards. I suppose we could get some of Zu's boys to be the guards as well, but I frankly don't know how far we can trust them. Second, we ask some of the ex-slaves to volunteer to pose as the slaves, leaving all of us free to be the guards, but we would definitely need to make sure the slaves get out of the way before anything happens to them but after we get to the fog. That might be a complication we don't want to deal with. "Third, we could pretend to volunteer for the experiments outright. We say we showed up in Gongfang, heard about the monastery trying to create immortality, and we decided we want in on that. This one depends fairly heavily on our ability to bluff whoever comes to get the slaves, so we would definitely need to plan out exactly what we want to say beforehand. Last, we wait until someone shows up for the slaves, and then punch them until they decide they want to tell us how to get to the monastery. However, we don't know how the fog barrier works, and it might be something that we can't work by ourselves, leaving us up the proverbial creek if this one works out poorly for us." She places her hands flat on the table. "So, does anybody have any other ideas?" code:
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Jun 17, 2017 21:28
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Joey phone posting from europe, excuse the lack of effort Joey types back, Anything that gets us to the monastery is a-okay with me. Also the giant monuments to the Boulder's pecs were hilarious for about, like, ten minutes but now it's really starting to creep me out. You know those paintings with the eyes that follow you around the room? Imagine that, but nipples. code:
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Jun 30, 2017 20:22
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