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Post by mortebouse on Jul 14, 2017 0:08:15 GMT
>[ S ]{ P }===>
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Made with P5.js. If it doesn't work, or has a bug that i might have missed, contact me. All Processing animations in the comic will be labelled with "{P}", and may not necessarily have sound.]]
The night is as ordinary and as uninteresting as ever. It only seems slightly prettier from this angle because there’s a certain amount of serenity in the atmosphere when staring at the stars on a roof in the middle of the night.
It’s like some kind of nostalgic feeling, which doesn’t make any sense, because you don’t really have anything to be nostalgic about. You’ve been alive for six sweeps and... about a half now, and you can only really count the number of interesting things that have happened to you on one hand. And you’re thinking of a hand that has some fingers missing.
You have, for the most part, kept to yourself and stayed away from large groups of people. You regularly talk to two people, and less regularly to one other... and that’s about it. And you would like to say that you’re satisfied with that, but you’re not. Out of those three, you’ve only ever met one in real life. You’ve never even met your moirail, even though you want to.
It gets to the point where you feel as if you’ve mostly missed out on life so far. How if you could have gotten yourself to go and meet more people, you would feel more fulfilled.
These thoughts cross your mind often, but then you remember that not going out into world to see people means not having to deal with the unpleasantness of going out into the world to see people, and become content with the idea of near-isolation once again.
You feel like you should say something about the night while you have this short surge of inspiration, but you don’t really possess the poetic ability to do so, so while trying to think of something you quickly lose concentration and start thinking of the lyrics to a song from the Mother soundtrack.
“It’s the middle of the night, and your mommy and your daddy are sleeping
It’s the middle of the night, and your mommy and your daddy are sleeping
Sleeping
Mom and dad are sleeping
Sleeping in a jar
The jar is under the bed”
-Mother OST Composer Troll Keiichi Suzuki
Boy, the songs in that game sure were catchy. You still wonder what the heck a bed is supposed to be, though. Now, what did you come out here to do again? Oh right, you need to eat.
You begin to gobble up your omelet, yucky healthy ingredients and all.
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Post by mortebouse on Jul 21, 2017 0:51:28 GMT
> Casmus: Kill more time by looking around.
Again, nothing really all that interesting. Just some grass fields. There's also some trees and the occasional bush in the distance. Oh, and down there is your crappy SPRING-PROPELLED REBOUNDING DEVICE. You use it to train your psychic powers... sometimes.
> Casmus: Describe psychic abilities.
You can teleport, but it's not very strong. You don't completely have a hang on it, so all you can do is teleport short distances away. You practice using it in between bounces, or in the grass. Either way, you usually get a headache pretty fast.
> ===>
And of course, there are a lot of canyon worms too.
As much as it is annoying living where you live with the few means that you have, you know you'll be okay, because the worms that make their habitat in the chasms near your hive are so convenient. Their meat and eggs are pretty good, and even though they look toxic, they really aren't. You can use their saliva for cheap lighter fluid too, if you're in a pinch. And there's so many of them that you're sure you'll never run out.
Yup. If for any reason you'll ever need a conveniently dead animal, for any reason at all, like say, for instance, as an offering of some kind, the canyon worms would always be perfect for that.
Yup.
> Be Mayera.
You are now Mayera again.
You finally found a README FILE hidden within the depths of the game folder. Maybe now you’ll be able to understand what the heck is going on with this mod.
> ===>
> ===>
Okay, nevermind.
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Post by mortebouse on Jul 28, 2017 4:19:34 GMT
> ===>
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allswellBinge [AB] began trolling bracketingApocrypha [BA]
AB: Okay, now thys ys REALLY startyng to look weyrd. AB: Earlyer, y looked on GrubFaqs and game databases for the orygynal game, but found that yt’s not lysted on there at all. AB: Lyke yt never exysted or somethyng! AB: And when y fynally found the Readme, yt was yn some language y couldn’t understand! BA: A. seriously?! AB: Yeah, and yt was stupydly annoyyng. AB: They couldn’t just name yt “Readme”. AB: Noooooooo, they HAD to name yt “jgsghlkfjh.txt”. AB: >:/ BA: B. you sure there wasn’t anything from the place where you downloaded it that could help? BA: C. maybe you can check there for a solution. AB: y would, but the syte y got yt from doesn’t exyst anymore! AB: Last nyght and yt was there, but when y vysyted yt agayn thys evenyng yt had dysappeared. BA: C’. what? that’s really weird. AB: That’s what y’m sayyng!! BA: B’. i don’t know what to make of any of this. this is like something out of the dawn zone. AB: Erm... well my guess ys that the orygynal game was from somewhere on the alyen ynternet, and that at some poynt someone from Alternya got ahold of yt and made the mod, but who knows? BA: A’. but aren’t websites from other planets inaccessible from here because of the embargo thing? AB: Yeah, but how else do you explayn yt? That language was not Alternyan yn the slyghtest! BA: A. huh. what do we do? AB: Um... AB: The next best thyng, y guess: We start playyng, and fyddle wyth the controls to see what happens! BA: B. works for me! let me just shove the rest of this omelet into my mouth. AB: :D > ===>
AB: Okay, are you runnyng yt? BA: C. yup. AB: Okay, so we’re supposed to connect to a server together wyth these. AB: Anythyng happenyng on your end that suggests that? BA: C’. nope. what about yours? AB: Nah. AB: Hmm... AB: Let’s start wyth the easyest thyng and both relaunch the program at once. BA: B’. alright, i did it. it’s the same. AB: Me too. Dang yt. AB: Okay... so y guess next we try and see yf yt’s just the ynternet connectyon that’s screwyng up. BA: A’. oh yeah. most likely, considering how crappy it can get out here. AB: Dysconnect/reconnect the ynternet and then get back to me. AB: y’m just goyng to swytch to the headset for a second. > ===>
bracketingApocrypha [BA] ceased trolling allswellBinge [AB]
bracketingApocrypha [BA] began trolling allswellBinge [AB]
BA: A. nothing changed for me. AB: ys your antyvyrus on? BA: B. no, i already tried turning it off. AB: Shyt. > ===>
AB: Okay, how about thys: close yt, open your computer’s command prompt as admynystrator, and type yn “run SXXXXB.exe”. AB: y just dyd yt on myne. BA: C. still nothing. :/ AB: Oh, come on!!! > ===>
baalBeheader [BB] began trolling allswellBinge [AB]
AB: URRRRRRGHHH!!! Just WORK, you stupyd thyng!! AB: y don’t have all nyght! BB: yEAh, thAts Right! fucking dEstRoy its Ass by yELLing At it. woRks EvERy timE. > ===>
AB: ?! AB: H-hello? BB: hi, mAy! BB: hEy, whEn ARE wE gonnA stARt, giRL? im psychEd to pLAy this thing ALREAdy! AB: ...um. AB: yt’ll be soon. BB: whAts thE hoLdup? AB: U-uh... BB: did somEthing go wRong? AB: N-no. Um, we’re uh, tryyng to test yt fyrst to see how what’s supposed to work. y mean- how yt’s supposed to work. AB: C-cause, yt, uh, doesn’t have any ynstructyons. BB: oh, okAy then. BB: dAmmit, i wAs hoping wE couLd stARt now. AB: y’m sorry. BB: nAh, its cooL. just hit mE up whEn its timE cAusE i Am REAdy to mothERfuckin go!! BB: And At somE point wE shouLd dEfinitELy pLAy togEthER just thE two of us! AB: Okay. BB: hELL yEAh!! cAn’t wAit! BB: LAtER!
baalBeheader [BB] ceased trolling allswellBinge [AB] > ===>
That was really, really bad.
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Post by mortebouse on Aug 5, 2017 3:46:57 GMT
> ===>
BA: C’. may, are you talking to someone else? :o AB: Yeah, sorry! y’m done now. BA: B’. it’s okay. BA: A’. hey, i just thought of something. what if it’s not working because the servers aren’t being maintained anymore? AB: Oh no, y hope not!!! AB: Hold on, y’m gonna try runnyng the other one. BA: A. the other what? AB: The other executable. The one called “SXXXXB_1ST”. y have a feelyng that only one of the two actually works and that the other ys a dud. AB: Alryght, no error message so far. AB: Oh! More text ys appearyng on thys one! BA: B. hey same here! BA: C. what does it say on yours? mine’s all gibberish except for “enter”. AB: yn all caps? BA: C’. yeah. AB: Me too! Try pressyng that key. y’ll do the same. > ===>
AB: Are you gettyng a loadyng screen? BA: B’. yeah, i think so! AB: Then y thynk we dyd yt!! > ===>
AB: y can see you! BA: A’. you can? cool! AB: y can also see the clutter! BA: A. oh pfft, how dare you. BA: B. you’re the one who broke into my hive! AB: y dydn’t break yn, y peeked yn! BA: C. same thing! AB: >:P !!! AB: Also, thys UI has some of the same kynd of text from the ReadMe! AB: And some arrows and stuff. AB: Must be a buylt-yn guyde or somethyng! BA: is it understandable at all? AB: yn a vague, loose way, maybe. But not really. AB: Okay then, tyme to peek around elsewhere! BA: C’. hey, wait for me! > ===>
AB: Wow, thys place really looks dyfferent from thys angle. AB: A lot less flatteryng. BA: B’. jeez, you force your way into my home and you do nothing but insult it. AB: Oh, hy bulldad! You’ve gotten fatter! BA: A’. he has? dang it... AB: Hey you left your thermal hull open, you dyngdong!!! BA: A. shoot. BA: B. i guess i filled it up too much. BA: C. but it should be fine. there’s only slices of canyon worm and canyon worm eggs in there right now, and those don’t spoil easily. AB: Casmus. AB: y’ve got somethyng y’d lyke to teach you about. AB: yt’s called a vegetable. BA: C’. never heard of it. AB: Oh shut up you doofus!! AB: You know you need to eat more than just meat sometymes!! BA: B’. and you need to eat more than just food from nutrition cylinders. AB: YES OKAY y get yt y get yt!!! You don’t have to keep tellyng me!!! AB: Anyway, y thynk y’ve got the hang of thys so far. Basycally, yt feels lyke a regular sym-type game so far, only yn real people’s hyves. BA: A’. cool. BA: A. i wonder if there’s a story that goes with this mod. AB: Your guess ys as good as myne. AB: Maybe that’s what the text ys for? BA: B. if so then it’s kind of a waste, isn’t it? AB: Yeah. AB: Ooh, y can put stuff yn! > ===>
BA: C. what the heck is this thing? AB: “Cruxtruder”. AB: ...that’s all yt says. C’. is... that the same kind of text you were seeing? AB: Yeah! AB: What do you think yt’s tryyng to say? B’. something about the top of it? A’. maybe we need to reach inside the machine? AB: y thynk you’re ryght. The top looks removable. AB: We should try unscrewyng yt or poppyng yt open. AB: Come to thynk of yt... yt looks lyke yt would be too heavy to be unscrewed by troll hands alone, so let’s try poppyng yt fyrst. BA: A. got it, so how should i do that? AB: Do you have a mallet or somethyng else heavy? BA: B. yeah. but it’s all the way back in the leisureblock. :/ AB: Then we should go get yt. BA: C. listen, i get that. BA: C’. but i don’t want to go all the way around the hive again. BA: B’. so what if i just jumped on it? AB: That's dangerous! BA: A’. i think i could teleport right over it. it would be easy to do! AB: And let you break your bone cap? No way!! > ===>
AB: Here, looks lyke y can move stuff around freely. y’ll use one of your cynder blocks. BA: A. fine. i’ll move out of the way. > ===>
> ===>
BA: B. looks like it worked, but now what do we do? AB: Fyddle wyth more thyngs!! AB: That’s pretty much the only way we’re going to make any progress. BA: C. okay, i’m gonna turn the crank then. AB: Good! BA: C’. at least it’s a good thing those arrows are there. AB: No kyddyng! > ===>
AB: There’s more stuff to place around. AB: Do you have any wyde-open blocks y can put thys yn? Thys one’s kynd of byg. AB: Nevermynd, y put yt outsyde. > ===>
AB: Myght as well put the rest of the stuff there whyle y’m at yt. > ===>
AB: Were you able to get yt out? AB: Oh, good! AB: ... AB: Casmus, you okay? You’re just staryng at that thyng. > ===>
BA: B’. um... i think it’s laughing at me. AB: OnO > ===>This is probably going to take a while. So in the meantime, why not try getting to know the players whose faces have remained unseen until now? > ===>
We'll start with this bored guy.
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Post by mortebouse on Aug 11, 2017 3:38:05 GMT
> Enter name.
> Try agai-
Hold on, looks like he's writing something down now.
> ===>
Nevermind, it looks like this guy has decided to name himself. You can tell by his body language that he is irritated, and will probably become full-blown angry if you attempt to name him again, so you decide to back away from naming prompt and get on with it.
> Examine room.
Your name is PHIDAS INVIVO and you HATE how much time you’re wasting right now.
You practice the art of SCULPTING as a hobby, and to have a repetitive task to do when you need to RELIEVE FRUSTRATION. You sculpt both MABLE and WOOD, and do many STUDIES to improve your skills. To do this, you get help and materials from people in the CITY nearby. It is VERY DIFFICULT, and sometimes things go completely wrong, making many of your attempts to adhere to an efficient schedule pointless. Despite this, you like to put in the work, because it really pays off in the long run.
Apart from that, you like to read books from the CITY LIBRARY on any subject you get curious about, especially on HISTORY and BIOLOGY. You also collaborate with your friend on her writing sometimes, mostly by helping her ORGANIZE HER MESS OF PLOTS AND DIALOGUE.
Your trolltag is observativeAnalyst and you 1.618 < have a tendency to emphasize /THE MOST IMPORTANT/ parts of what you say.
What will you do?
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Post by mortebouse on Aug 18, 2017 1:31:46 GMT
> Phidas: Examine latest sculpture.
Your newest sculpture is under this tarp. You're currently practicing perfectly symmetrical sculptures. When this one is finished, it will look exactly like the plan you made for it, or at least as close as you can make it.
(You take a moment to imagine what the sculpture looks like, because it will never be shown in any way.)
> Phidas: Continue working on it now.
No can do. That's scheduled for tomorrow, when you'll have exactly enough time to finish it. Do any work now, and you'll have to deal with some dead time tomorrow. You do not want to redo your plan until the next equinox all over again.
> Phidas: Start a new sculpture.
Also no can do. Making a decent sculpture takes hours of pre-planning and careful execution. You refuse to sculpt anything that you know will turn out poor.
> Phidas: Examine work desk.
You keep your desk clean as often as possible, and keep your notes color-coded. YELLOW is for regular notes, BLUE is for corrections, and RED is for emergencies.
On the wall to the right is the map filled with the writing ideas that you organize for Mayera, and on the left, two pictures from Casmus.
> Phidas: View writing map.
You’re the one who suggested Mayera to let you do this for her. It took a lot of convincing on your part, but now she seems to have slowly warmed up the idea, and even graciously accepts many of the suggestions you give to her for her plots.
It confuses you that she’s so bashful about it because based on her ideas, you can tell that she’s got a lot of creativity.
> Phidas: Use Psionics to mess around.
You don't have any psionics, friend. Supposedly, trolls of your caste are supposed to have strong powers most of the time, but it's actually not as common as people think.
> Phidas: Examine contents of filing cabinets.
The top drawer is where you fiddle through the most. It contains all of the contact info from all of the people you've worked with in case you need to work with them again. It also has a few spare notepads and pens.
The bottom drawer is filled with only two things: BO's drawings (or "gift art", as he calls it) and Casmus' pictures. Mainly Casmus' pictures actually, as he sends them to you by the packageload. And no, you're not just exaggerating.
> Phidas: Pull out a random picture.
You don't understand him sometimes.
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Post by mortebouse on Aug 25, 2017 5:21:09 GMT
[[the second half of this update will be posted tonight!]]
> Phidas: Look out the window and loathe all of existence.
You're not angry enough at the moment to loathe all of existence. More like a third of it. Maybe a quarter.
In the distance, past the limits of the rustic countryside you've been doomed to reside in for the past six and a half sweeps, you can see the city. Well, they call it a city, but it's actually just a really big town. The four tallest spires are part of the mayor's hive.
Trolls are not allowed to build their hives wherever they please. The lower one's caste, the farther away from the ocean one is required to live, and the imperial drones direct young trolls to the edge of the area where they are permitted to build their hives at wriggling.
There's also the crossing trestle, which breaks at least a couple times a season, because they can't get the funding to build it out of anything but rope and wood. Cheap fucking government.
> ===>
You return to your desk and continue to wait. It may be hard to stand, but you much prefer it over having to deal with any real bullshit that might get in the way of your good time. You've been spared so far and hopefully, that won't change.
Of course, now that you're thinking this, you suddenly become certain that some bullshit will undoubtedly happen.
> ===>
Predictable.
> Phidas: Answer BB.
baalBeheader [BB] began trolling observativeAnalyst [OA]
BB: hEy AssmAstER, guEss fucking whAt? OA: 1.618 > No. BB: doEsnt mAttER, i knEw youd bE too much of A funLEss chodE to ActuALLy guEss so iLL just tELL you. BB: im gonnA bE pLAying with you! OA: 1.618 > Sure. BB: no, REALLy! mAy LEt mE join. BB: yup. in youR fAce, AsswAgon. BB: L BB: -o-/ BB: sEE thAt? thAts mE doing thE losER sign with my fingERs. OA: 1.618 < You’re probably just fucking with me, but I need to ask. OA: 1.618 < Did you force her to let you join? BB: no, i didnt. BB: it just so hAppEns thAt i AskEd nicELy LikE A REguLAR fucking tRoLL bEing, And got A confiRmAtion thAt i wAs ALLowed to pARticipAtE. so hARd to bELiEvE? OA: 1.618 < Well gee, I’m sorry that I try to take claims coming from /you/ with a fragment of savory dust. OA: 1.618 < Or that I’d be wary that you’d want to play a game that I’m planning on playing, probably just for the sole purpose of trying to get on my nerves. OA: 1.618 < Why else would you message me just to rub it in my face? BB: cAusE its funny wAtching youR moody Ass gEt pissEd off. BB: And i know its LikE, REAL hARd foR you to gRAsp this, but mAybE i wAntEd to pLAy with hER bEcAusE (WOW GET THIS) wERE fRiEnds??? And thAts A thing fRiEnds do togEthER????? OA: 1.618 < Friends? Last time I checked, she never talks about you ever, other than with fear. BB: wELL shit, phidAs. A giRL cAn hAvE othER fRiEnds And not tALk to you About EvERything shE doEs with thEm. OA: 1.618 < You make her uncomfortable. BB: shEs my fRiEnd, you smARtAss fucktRumpEt. i dont sEt out to mAkE my fRiEnds uncomfoRtAbLE. BB: othER thAn in youR mind whERE im A sELfish EviL witch EvERy dAy of EvERy wEEk. OA: 1.618 < No, you’re a selfish evil witch outside of my mind most of the time too. BB: suRE, phidAs. kEEp tELLing youRsELf thAt if it mAkEs you fEEL bEttER. OA: 1.618 < Either way, I don’t give a shit. OA: 1.618 < I don’t plan on talking to you at all tonight. BB: you ALREAdy ARE, dumbAss. OA: 1.618 < Not for long.
observativeAnalyst [OA] blocked baalBeheader [BB]
BB: if you dont givE A shit, thEn why thE hELL did you ARguE with mE About it?
observativeAnalyst [OA] did not receive message from baalBeheader [BB]
BB: dudE, comE on. you know youRE just gonnA unbLock mE LAtER AnywAy, so why bothER.
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Post by mortebouse on Aug 26, 2017 1:56:14 GMT
> ===>
As you try your damned best to keep BB's insufferable antics from getting to you, you decide to reread a few pages from NUMBERS AND ALTERNIA: PAST AND PRESENT, one of the books you most recently rented out. You turn to the section titled "History of Numerical Meanings tied to the Alternian Calendar" and begin to read.
> ===>
To paraphrase, Alternia’s heritage is profoundly connected to numbers. It was more so in the past than now, but prior to the ERA OF CENTRALISATION, it was customary to take numeric meanings very seriously. In very old texts from that era and from as early as the ERA OF PLASTER, numbers would be used in the place of words sometimes, and you would have to infer what the author’s meaning was based on the symbolism behind the number. In the most extreme of cases, texts would ONLY use numbers, and nothing else. A lot of poetry from that time was written like that, as well.
Numbers had a lot of effect on how meaningful dates were created in the calendar. The number 600 in particular was seen as divine, which is why every 6th dark season and 6th dim season of every sweep were times of fasting and prayer for some cults, in part because those are the last seasons in a sweep, and the people wanted to ensure that the next one led to good fortune for everyone.
Interestingly, anytime there was an anti-leap bilunar or anti-leap sweep (required so that the calendar remains regular), it would be counted and added to the date, as a way of keeping track of how many had gone by. This practice was a key way of placing important events in time for historians.
The influence of numbers in the culture can still be seen, and there even exist some groups that still try to carry on the traditions, even though their numbers are dwindling. A good example of its influence in contemporary culture is its application in galactic colonization. There’s a whole section on that, as well.
> Phidas: Turn to that section and read. There are currently 395 planets under rule (as of this printing). Each planet is categorized based on its qualities that are useful to the empire, and numbers are used to label these categories. For example, barren planets that used to have life on them are labelled with 401, because 400 historically shares its meaning with destruction, and 1 with death. Planets that are still teeming with life are labelled with 500, and those with the intention of being made barren later with 501.
Most planets are made barren in the end, because those are the most useful for the empire’s purposes. Barren planets are used for mining, high-intensity training grounds for the army, testing grounds for superweapons and new spacecraft, or even vacation spots for the wealthy. In the event that life forms on a planet are useful somehow, its people are usually enslaved, its trade with other planets is put to a stop, and nobody is allowed to leave the surface.
> Phidas: View numerical meanings guide chart.
The numerical meanings used in modern times are all taken from this list.
But it’s much more complicated than a simple word and number substitution. Sometimes numbers can mean more than one thing, and you have to guess which meaning the writer intended by looking at the context. And it is not easy sometimes, because in using a number, nuance is lost, and along with it, meaning. It doesn’t help that the meanings behind some numbers are inconsistent from era to era, suggesting that the meanings behind them have evolved, or that there was disagreement among scribes at the time over what the true meanings were. The most famous of which is with the number 1, because although the strong connotation with death, many scholars have claimed that it also shares its meaning with fate, or that it exclusively means fate. This has lead to many spats.
Oh, and only numbers ranging from 1 to 900 were given meanings. It’s best not to ask why, because nobody knows.
Nowadays, numbers are mostly just numbers, used for counting and all that stuff, and the cult-sized organized religions that revolved around them so strongly have been largely replaced by the belief that highbloods are the “superior race”, though debates still rage on between land dweller highbloods and sea dweller highbloods over which race is biologically superior. It’s all a bunch of hoofbeastshit to you, though. It’s clear that it’s just both groups’ method to justify all of the territorial segregation and oppression happening in the world right now.
> ===>
God fucking dammit, again?
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Post by mortebouse on Sept 1, 2017 0:25:57 GMT
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Post by mortebouse on Sept 28, 2017 15:51:24 GMT
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QUIET!!!
> ===>
FOR THE TRILLIONTH TIME, THESE ARE NOT HOME INVADERS! THESE ARE JUST BOOKS!!! SOMETIMES WHEN THINGS FALL ON THE ROOF IT KNOCKS SHIT OVER AND MAKES NOISE!!! CALM DOWN!!!
> ===>
AND WILL YOU STOP SHEDDING YOUR SKIN AND JUST LEAVING IT THERE?! IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO EAT IT, THEN GET RID OF IT!!! I WASH THESE FLOORS FOR A REASON!
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GIMME-
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A BREAK!!!!!
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> Casmus and Mayera: make progress.
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