Board 8 > The Notes of Cain, Topic 2 [CYOA]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Cata gives skill to Lancer Aaron
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trdl23 posted...

I cant help but feel a little irritated that Matsuda got hit with what felt like rocks fall u die. Probably just salt on my end.

MariaTaylor posted...

In this world, sometimes, hell, maybe even most of the time, the game was actually rigged. No matter which cards came down next, Matsuda would never see his payout.

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Going with 12.A as well
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A

Even though this is probably the worst option for Zephyr =/
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C. Let's cut our losses. I'm sorry I got Punch killed. This was my fault.
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We had the largest group, I'm pretty sure every option had at least 1-2 people dying in it.
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Changing to C
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aww man, yeah. I am a *teense* salty too because it reminds me of those bits where its all "He's gonna die for sure!" or "The disease is gonna end him!" or something from shows and anime and then they go "Welllll maybe not! The impossible might happen!" and then "Nevermind."

It's incredibly rare to not die after that many death flags, I mean we got a backstory for him. You never get to live after getting the BACKSTORY EPISODE. So much so that living is actually more surprising at that point, is what I mean. I dunno, I feel it would have been so incredible for it to stop an inch away or something.

Of course, that's a cliche in itself so lol. Anyway, I'm glad there wasn't a supermassive death count tho since I do think whittlin' em down is more dramatic despite also being cliche.

That was a hell of a scene an epic fight and I kind of knew attacking it head on was insanity... although I can't say how much better off running would have worked. We may have lost less members fighting, but maybe we lost more vital members. Or not.

As for Zephyr, I think he should stick it out. He may not realize it, but he was a hero! That arrow to the eye was the first real victory we had against that beast and he showed us that "if it bleeds it can be killed". That was the sort of thing we needed to see right then.

Give ABOM's RESISTANCE to MARA

The brains of the group needs some more durability!

As for the movement, I think we should B explore area and then regroup; we shed blood to get here, let's look around a bit, carefully first.
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B
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Well that was brutal. Better than I expected but still brutal. Gonna go with...

B

Our best fighters are dead. Zeph is demoralized. Owen has yet to achieve the necessary character development that would make him a competent fighter. Everyone else seems to be running low on bullets maybe? Either way, that just leaves Kidd as our best fighter. This area should be safe enough to explore at least so I'd rather not go with the immediate retreat.

Or we could roll the dice and go exploring even further and hope that lucky girl Fakeru allows us to avoid all further encounters!

(insert tally here)
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Think we're at

A: 5
B: 4
C: 4
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Swap to B
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vote A
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Swap to B
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you da man PK

A. explore - 6
B. scan and retreat - 6
C. full retreat - 2
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if my vote counts while not being in the group...B
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of course! anyone can vote in any choice really, for the most part.

also I agree Enoch is probably the best remaining character to cure mental status effects. though there are probably some substitutes that will work in a pinch.

anyway looking like grab and retreat will be the option.
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Up!
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definite update incoming tonight, especially since I know I won't be updating on saturdays
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Owen gained +Resistance
Leone gained +Stealth
Torin gained +Intelligence
Aaron gained +Skill

Entry 13: Hysteric Belief

Owen knelt down in the bloody water, examining the last effects of Captain Punch. A single coin, or, no, rather, it was a chip of some sort, floated past them in the water. His hand went out, going to the satchel at Punch's side. Inside there was the land deeds which Punch had looted from the farm. The papers were rumpled and wet now, but they were still legible.

The idea was that... after all of this was over... if the land was really made safe again, someone who survived to the end of this quest could actually inherit some of the land here. There was a tangible goal at the finish line. Owen thought that Punch probably would have wanted that dream to be kept alive.

Jamison came to him and put a hand on Owen's shoulder. The Inspector had worked with Owen in the past and knew what kind of man he really was. Not just a coward, but a timid man who probably didn't have the stomach or the tenacity for this line of work. Jamison, himself, at this point, wasn't sure if he had it. "You know," Jamison said. "It's getting to be more difficult here than we could have imagined. If you wanted to turn back, we-..."

Yet, at that time, Jamison wasn't speaking for Owen's sake.

He was speaking for himself.

Because, truthfully, Jamison looked around at this group and he saw something. There was no one left who could lead them. And as the fear and anxiety took hold of him, wrapping around his heart and constricting like vines, he knew one sad truth; if Owen was ready to run away from this place, he would have gone with Owen.

"No," Owen said, shaking his head. "I'll see it through to the end."

Jamison's face grew dark and haggard as he looked on at the situation. He was too much of a coward to run away unless he had someone to run away with him. That was all that happened here. And so, because Owen had found a strange courage in that moment, Jamison had been forced to press on.

\\###\\

While Aaron and Enoch began to scour the main open hall and check the status of each of the statues, and Torin was busy organizing the supplies on the wagon, Jennifer and Leone decided to take a short glance down one of the side passages. The two had already been warned to avoid getting into any danger, but Leone was perfectly fine with that. There were very few idiots in this world who were fine with voluntarily wandering into danger just for the sake of danger.

Getting the wagon up the stairs was going to be impossible anyway, so Leone figured it was worth it to take a look up that way. Going by foot would be easier. The ground was a bit unsteady, but finding ways through the unsure footing wasn't too unfamiliar of a task. There were plenty of districts in Hendrake that hadn't seen repair to the stonework or construction for years, not since before Leone was born. And the hidden hovels and passages beneath the city that were utilized by the thieves guild, well, those weren't always up to code.

Jen required a bit of extra attention. Leone was forced to stop and turn, reaching out a hand to help pull her up from one elevation level to the next. She had always been a tough girl, at least since the two had met, but at the same time Jen had a sense of reluctance to her behavior. It meant that maybe, because she was unsure of herself, it meant that she wasn't able to accomplish certain things.

In the absolute sense you might say 'Jen could do it if she really tried.'

But if she was incapable of trying then what was the difference? The reality was that she couldn't do it.
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Now she had a short and wide blade attached to her hip, a shortsword that had been pulled off of the wagon. More like a hatchet than anything else. It would serve well enough for cutting through wooden debris. Though her shoulders were still lacerated and her arms were sore, Jennifer Lowell was at least capable of swinging that weapon. And if it came down to it, if she or Leone were in danger, she could probably...

Leone went to a bookshelf leaning against the off side of the high balcony. It didn't look like it belonged here, but rather it had been pushed out of a nearby chamber and almost thrown over the railing. There was a bandage wrapped around the knuckles of the hand that retrieved the one remaining book that hadn't been scattered, and began to turn the pages.

While Jen was busy catching her breath, she leaned against the railing and quietly watched as Leone became focused on skimming through the book. "Does it concern you?" Jen asked in a timid voice.

"More than you might expect," Leone muttered. Holding the book and turning the pages with one hand was hard, but it was good practice for Leone to get used to operating things with this limited functionality. It wasn't like that missing hand was going to grow back.

More alarming were the contents of the book. What appeared to be mundane pages of some romance novel had passages crossed out, others marked as significant or circled in odd ways, drawing attention to combinations of letters from entirely different words or sentences. It was almost as if someone were trying to crack a code hidden inside of here.

But, looking over it, Leone only saw signs of hysteria.

There was no secret message here, no code. Only the hysteric belief of someone obsessed with the contents of a very mundane novel. Then, written in notes on the edges and margins of certain pages, were warnings encoded in Trinspeak. The language of the Thieves Guild.

Leone was beginning to think he had been sent here under false pretenses.

"My little brother," Laurence had said, "You are the one I trust most with this task."

Laurence was a councilor on the governing group that made decisions on how city resources in Hendrake would be allocated. He was also a plant, a member of the Thieves Guild who thrived on the current state of things in the city. His tying vote was responsible for the gridlock which had stopped the city from mobilizing the Fisher Knights to come and deal with the problems on Cain's lands.

Because, if the Lord sent his Knights there first, they might strip the place of all valuables.

Instead, Laurence had intentionally created a situation where the government wouldn't act. And, during that period, private companies would instead move in to scout out the situation and return with their own share of the loot. While that was going on it would be possible for the Thieves Guild to send their own members in with this mission. Maybe sending his own little brother into such a dangerous place was a callous or a foolish move on the part of Laurence. It was hard to say which it was.

Leone closed the book and thought about all of the carnage they had witnessed so far.

Did Laurence know it was going to be this bad?

... Did he care?

And, being the second time that Trinspeak was found within records of the people on Cain's lands, in two separate locations, Leone began to wonder something else. Just how much involvement did the Thieves Guild have in this place -before- everything had gone to hell? Was Leone really here to return with treasure? Or was the actual mission to wipe the place clean of any evidence that might implicate Laurence and the other high ranking members?
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"But don't worry, Jen," Leone said, looking to her. "I will look after you."

The fact that Jen tagged along was probably Leone's biggest regret. There was no reason for her to get caught up in all of this. No reason for her to get hurt because of things she was not responsible for, and things that she didn't understand. That was Leone's job, after all. Smart enough to figure things out as he went along, and stupid enough to try and pick up the mess of his older brother and the others. That's exactly why Laurence trusted him so much, even without telling him the real reason why he had been sent here.

"Yes. Of course," she agreed. Jen moved away from the railing and went to the door of the chamber from which the bookshelf had been ejected. Placing her weight against the open frame, she looked through the door cautiously and into the room beyond.

The room contained human corpses whose flesh had been stripped from their bones. It was one of the first true gruesome reminders of the massacre that had happened on these lands since long before the caravan arrived. This was the visual evidence of the fall of Cain's estate. Seeing it was a reminder of things that the letters themselves couldn't have prepared Leone or Jennifer to see.

It was the gnawing fear at the back of their minds. The unseen corpses which should have been found in the other buildings in the village, but had likely vanished for reasons that were too gruesome to imagine. At least whatever had eaten the people in this hall had left their bones behind. There was evidence that they had once existed.

"A natural death," Leone observed, entering the room quietly and moving toward the nonhuman corpse in the room. One of the fish monsters here was curled up and seemed to have perished long ago as well. Its body was partially rotted. "They have some sort of lifespan."

"It smells in here," Jen observed.

Yes, it did. Leone grabbed the scarf and pulled it up from beneath the lower section of the cat-eared cloak. With the cloth material pulled over Leone's mouth and the hood covering his head, most of his face was no longer visible. But at least he didn't have to deal with that awful dead fish smell.

Scanning the room, he quickly spotted an object of note. Part of the wall had been torn down and, hidden behind it, there was a great stone slab with engravings upon it. The slab was large enough that it very well may have been a portal to a room beyond. Some kind of hidden chamber, perhaps?

Beyond that it seemed to have been a small study chamber. Not large enough nor containing the furniture to be a true bedroom. Rather, it look as if someone was using this as a sitting hall to read and to write notes. Perhaps the same person with the fixation of trying to solve code in old novels?

Leone went back out into the main hall and looked to the ground floor. "Torin, do you have anything to get past solid stone? I fear the hatchet is not going to cut it for this," Leone called down to the group below.

As it turned out, the alchemy kit which had been discovered by Jamison and the others at the abandoned inn, contained some specific compounds which Torin happened to be familiar with. Specifically there was an extract from fungal pods that were sometimes found in the underground tunnels during the mining operation.

"My experience with these, is, ah, mostly that the workers were warned to stay away from them," Torin admitted, as he was demonstrating the ingredient mixture to Enoch. "It was said that the acid released from these fungal pods could melt through your tools and even your skin if you weren't careful, and others warned that they could even eat through stone or corrode the materials you had collected."
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"Wow, so it's that powerful," Enoch exclaimed with a sense of wonder. "I suppose I should handle it carefully, then?"

"Yes, I'll have to rely on you for this." Torin glanced at the wreckage of what had once been the staircase to the second floor. He wasn't sure he still had the strength to make that climb. But he could put the ingredients into a satchel bag for Enoch and have that man bring the mixture up to Leone. "Why don't you pass these on to Leone and make sure those two are kept safe while they investigate whatever they've found upstairs?"

"You can count on me," Enoch told the old man. He gave a serious nod while taking the bag from Torin. "While I'm at it, why don't you go through those ingredients and see if there's anything else useful? I'd be truly grateful if you could mix up an elixir to make me immortal." Enoch was half joking. Although, at the end of the day, who really wanted to die? He supposed there was a bit of truth to his humor there.

Aaron went back to the wagon and quietly watched as Enoch began the climb up to the second floor. While waiting with Torin, he looked at the old man and gave him a shrug. The two of them would be forced to wait down here while the others were exploring above. With his heavy armor it was unlikely Aaron could make the climb, either.

Plus, beyond that, it would be better to have someone reliable down here to defend the wagon. In Aaron's mind there was no one more reliable than himself. He would keep Torin safe and guard their supplies for the time being. He was fine with taking that role.

"Can you read all of this?" Jen inquired, tracing her hands over the etchings on the stone tablet.

Leone shook his head. Part of him wanted to warn her not to touch things she didn't understand, or to move away from the tablet. But, since nothing bad seemed to be happening, it was probably fine to let it go. "Nope. It reminds me of that strange card that we found in the clinic. A language that I don't understand, but... it has similarities to the other. That's why I think it's probably in the same script."

"So you've seen this before?" Enoch inquired, entering the room as they were in the middle of the conversation. "It's very strange to me. I've been to many different places but I don't think I'm familiar with any kind of language that uses this alphabet."

"We found a card with the same kind of letters on it," Leone explained. "When one of our companions activated the card with his blood... it... seemed to suck him into some kind of portal." Leone made a very worried face. "I think there is some dark magic at play in these lands."

"Mm. Yes." Enoch seemed to be muttering to himself as he went to stand beside Jen, and examined the tablet. "You know, I always thought that Cainas was a strange lad. Who would have thought he'd grow up to get involved with such bizarre things, though? Such dangerous things?"

Leone walked over to join the two of them and spurred the situation forward. "Well, in any case, let's have that compound. I'd like to see if it works."

Jen glanced at Leone, who was generally not so motivated, and usually fine with hanging back and reacting to the situation as it unfolded. For some reason, Leone was very driven to see whatever was beyond this door. Or maybe Leone just wanted to destroy the stone tablet by any means. Even if there was nothing behind it.
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"These are apspora fungal pods," Enoch explained as he took them out and began to carefully squeeze the acidic juice onto the tablet. "Well, you can't credit me for this one. Torin seemed to know a lot more about it than I did. But according to him they're very interesting."

There was a soft hissing sound. Leone watched carefully as rivets began to burn into the stone tablet. It was slow going, but they did seem to at least be weakening the integrity. "Go for the edges," Leone instructed. "If we can at least break apart the seal where it's attached to the wall, we may be able to punch our way through."

This strategy of relying on physics seemed to work. Once Enoch melted the sides of the tablet it no longer had a sturdy base that was holding it in place. And, with the combined strength of all three of them pushing on the stone tablet, they were able to use the weight of the tablet to simply push it backwards... straight through the opening and into the secret passage beyond.

"I don't even want to -THINK- about how this door would be opened normally," Enoch said, gratefully stepping over the stone wreckage. Parts of it had broken on impact and left rocks scattered all over the passageway. Looking ahead, it was a bit too dark to see.

Leone, who had better eyes for the dark, pushed ahead and watched the upcoming corridor carefully. "Blood, most like," he theorized, thinking about what had happened with Goetic on the previous night. And, of course, after seeing that, he had no interest in touching those demonic markings with his own blood.

"Should we go back?" Jen inquired. Her primary concern was the danger of this situation, with only the three of them here, in this crowded and small corridor. She was more afraid of anything that Leone might get killed by acting too bold.

However, it wasn't in Jen's power to actually stop Leone or force him to slow down. Maybe Leone was usually passive by default. But if that person saw something interesting... getting him to give up and retreat was not very easy.

"Once we have something to report," Leone said, striding forward with no torch or other source of light. Leone had long ago become accustomed to the dark. Laurence hadn't always been a member of the city council, and they had not always led such comfortable lives. When those two brothers were younger they had been forced to get by in some pretty dark places.

Enoch, not wanting to let Jen walk face first into danger, ended up taking the position behind Leone. He drew his small curved knife and held it at the ready. Though it was hard for Enoch to see in the low light conditions it wasn't impossible. He was good at stabbing things with the knife but he was even better at throwing it. If something appeared, he figured, he might be able to throw the weapon and slow it down or kill it before it could fell Leone.

Luckily for the three, curiosity did not kill the cat this time.

Leone entered a hidden isolation chamber at the end of the secret passage. It was in this place where the engraved stone walls held a faint white-blue glow to them. The darkness receded as they ended the small, cramped room filled with its own magical source of light.

And, there, against the far wall, was a cell that almost looked to be made of some kind of glass. Though Leone had a feeling it wouldn't be so easy to break. Inside of it was a perfectly preserved corpse of some woman. Even in death she seemed to be oddly at peace. She was not a beauty nor was she a crone. In a manner of words, she looked really like your average person. No one special. Not the kind of prisoner one would typically imagine being taken for the sake of some sick arcane ritual.
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"Just what were you doing here?" Leone asked to no one in particular. To the woman. Or perhaps to the person who had brought here here and trapped her in this cell, hidden from the other denizens of the manner. There were far too many questions to ask. First, it would be useful to figure out who this woman was.

Luckily, there was one among them who had been on these lands before.

"... I know this woman," Enoch said. He went to the glass and put his hand on it. "This was the wife of the smithy. Erina, I think, was her name." He tilted his head to the side, examining the puffy-eyed corpse with her still smooth skin. Perfectly preserved like this it sent an odd chill through him. Aside from the bruises around her eyes she almost looked like she could have just been sleeping.

Seeing a person that he knew, now dead, should have troubled him greatly. But somehow the way her body had been kept almost gave the feeling that she wasn't truly gone yet. It created a strange ambivalence that tore his brain between the rational and the emotional side, breeding conflict and more than a bit of unease. "I don't like this. This troubles me greatly."

"I find myself affected as well," Leone said. He stepped away from the corpse, trying to think about everything he had seen. And the more he thought about it, the more he didn't like it. Whatever was going on here was not right. Fundamentally there was something very disturbing about these lands. 'How much of it did Cain know?', that was the first question that came to mind.

But, even more than that, Leone found himself upset as he thought about the wider spanning implications.

How much of it did Laurence know?

"... More than you might expect..."

[End]

The promised Leone chapter. And now we start to understand why I've spent a lot of time talking about the situation in Hendrake, and giving background information on the Thieves Guild and other factions, and how all of that lore and information begins to tie into the overall story of what is going on here right now.

13. Where will the Shell Party go from here?
A. Continue searching the upstairs area.
B. Begin to secure the ground floor of any monster threats.
C. Look for a way down to the lower floors.
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A

Theres mysteries here! Also at this point it seems a given that looking for monsters is just asking for trouble.

And the thing about Jen and motivation is just too real shiver.

The monsters are nothing compared to that kind of realistic flaw.
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true existential horror; realizing you identify with the characters in the story because of their shortcomings...
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So the mystery of Leone's gender has been solved! Hmm for now...

13. A

I can see the pros of the other choices like everyone being on the same level with wagon for B and possibly getting to that alchemy lab in the lower levels from C...

but there's some weird stuff going on at the upper floors which aren't as easily accessed. We have people up here already and if there are any looming threats its best to catch em now rather than allowing them to get the jump on the group later from above maybe (Leone's ultra stealth could be useful on that front)? That and there may be some hidden loot / other artifacts up here since this seems to be a place where stuff is being hidden.

Dunno the layout of the whole place relative to the first floor but having people up above may also help in attacking enemies on the main floor should they show up (apparently Leone is better with range and I dunno if Enoch has a range weapon).

It seems people went with sending Moth Party to head back to Shell after they are done scanning the place so it might be a bit before they are able to meet up in case stuff happens.
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A
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A. If only for the preserved corpse alone.
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crazygamer999 posted...

A. If only for the preserved corpse alone.

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A

Can't wait for Enoch's heel turn and reveal as the big bad!
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A.
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secretly the most important passage in the chapter

MariaTaylor posted...

It was the gnawing fear at the back of their minds. The unseen corpses which should have been found in the other buildings in the village, but had likely vanished for reasons that were too gruesome to imagine. At least whatever had eaten the people in this hall had left their bones behind. There was evidence that they had once existed.

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Yeah it sounds like zombies all right.
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MysteriousStan posted...

A

Can't wait for Enoch's heel turn and reveal as the big bad!

Yea, I was wondering...Enoch seems almost too nice...
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Yeah the whole corpses thing (and lack thereof in other areas) was a bit of a red flag
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...I'm less and less sure that *any* of these are wise ideas, but going into the basement *mostly* unprepared, and actively searching what would appear to be an uncertain breed of undead... *here*, at least...

A.
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C.

Of course.
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C
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A.
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13
(111111111) A. Search Upstairs
B. Clear the ground floor
(11) C. Head on to the basement
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Going with C
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WHY am I AWAKE so EARLY
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Good question
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B.

Just to be different
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B
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https://imgur.com/qveV6Q7

drawing mood this morning
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Neat. Nice pic of the upstairs team.
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