>>34065938
First for mind-fuckery.

>>34066001
Second for nightmare fuel

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You are lying on a hill in the darkness, and above you giants are stirring.

As a steady growing draft musses your hair and tugs at your clothing, the long, giant blades of the rusting wind turbines begin to move. The hideous creaks and groans of long-stilled gearboxes fill the air as the behemoths stir, a deep, resonant WHOOM. WHOOM. WHOOM. as they come up to speed. The concrete tunnel mouth is throwing heat like a blast furnace now, the radiant heat load hot and uncomfortable even twenty feet distant. You stagger to your feet and nearly smack your forehead into the haft of your axe, buried nearly to the hilt in the steel support column of the closest windmill. Bracing a foot against the column, you manage to wrench it free.

You espy Madotsuki standing nearby, staring into the raging inferno, a distant, glazed look on her face.

>Give her a moment.
>No time!

>>34066653
>No time!

>>34066653
>>Give her a moment.

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>start at 5
>first story post at 5:40

I was right to move it up an hour. I need that hour to get into the zone and unhurf my freaking blurf.

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>>34066702

>>34066653
>Give her a moment.

>>34066653
>No time!

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>>34066682
>>34066702
>>34066905
>>34067008

>theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmRBZB_o8MM

You begin to call her name, but the sound dies in your throat. Madotsuki's staring into the furnace blankly, the violent, white-hot glow shining bright in her unfocused eyes. She seems to be absorbing the sight, too enraptured to blink... but too grave-faced to be happy.

She twitches visibly as the spell breaks. She notices your notice and looks away quickly before chastising you in a rough voice: “that was our only way back to the Plaza. What now?”

“We move,” you say.

“Where?”

“There'll be another connection, somewhere,” you tell her confidently. “But I don't know where. You know this place better than me-”

“-not much, remember?-”

“Still more than me!” you shout over the growing thrumming WHOOM WHOOM WHOOM of windmill blades. “WE HAVE TO GET MOVING!”

Mado thinks for a moment, then frowns and strides past you, away from the old building and towards the vast, dark forest opposite. Your unzipped jacket flutters and flies out like a cape behind you, even the side weighed by the insulator – the draft has become a gale, and you both lean into it, fighting your way forward. The swaying and nodding of the leafy canopy ahead seems to develop a gait, as if the forest is approaching to meet you. The roar of rushing wind beats furiously loud against your eardrums, and from behind you the mighty turbine gearboxes have settled into a low, off-key whine that clashes badly with the now-constant bass thrum of the blades. You glance back and see them spinning too fast to be seen. The sun is beginning to rise behind the ruined dormitory. Flashes of pale dawn light wink like fireflies as the scattered shell-casings on the hill begin rolling and bouncing towards the tunnel entrance.

You turn away and place a hand on Mado's shoulder, bracing her against the gale-force winds as you both slog into the dark Forest.

>>34067221
The wood is vast, dark and deep, close-set trunks linked by tight-woven thickets of saplings and brush. Distantly you can hear the gale beating at the edges of the thicket, to no avail. Above you the canopy is tossing and thrashing, the steady howl of wind blunted into the diffuse sibilant roar of millions of rustling leaves. Twisting through the darkness ahead is a narrow dirt track, ill-used and overgrown. Madotsuki races down it, and you follow.

Somewhere to your right comes the loud, hoarse cry of a crow; jarring and loud.

>Investigate
>Keep moving

>>34067316
>Keep moving

>>34067316
>Keep moving

>>34067316
>>Keep moving
Let's not go there; it could be murder.

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it's 3 am here thanks A LOT

>>34067550
The hell, you're even further east than me, I don't see that everyday here.

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>>34067340
>>34067362
>>34067476
>>34067550
(ur welcum faget)


You glance aside to see the bird flitting to another branch beside the path, up ahead. It lands and CAAWS~ at you insistently as you and Mado sprint past, but you pay it no heed. You've no more time for vague warnings and mad ghosts; your time is short and you've much yet to do. You keep close to Mado as she leaps nimbly over grasping roots and ducks under low branches that creep over the path; leading you deeper into the dark wood. The bird follows you, its desolate, harsh cries echoing loud and alone through the gnarled trunks before you.

You suck in deep breaths of punky, earthen-scented air as you belt after your charge. Mado comes skidding to a stop for a moment, falling against a tree as she heaves for air. You stop beside her, your chest heaving and heart singing.

From somewhere up ahead, you hear the faint hint of laughter.

Your hair stands on end as a thrill of alarm floods your body. Your breath freezes in your chest as your nerves thrum with tension, searching for any sign, any hint...

… of smoke. The barest whiff of woodsmoke, tugged along on the breeze.
“He's back,” you tell Madotsuki. You peer upwards through the tossing, thrashing canopy above, and you can just espy the first bright motes of wind-borne embers in the air.

The dancing Devil is back, and he's started another fire – well upwind of you.

>You must embrace what you fear once again, and fight fire with fire.
>You must leap, and trust that someone will catch you.

>>34068070
>>You must embrace what you fear once again, and fight fire with fire.
By the way Mado, what's up with that crow, it's been following us...

>>34068070
>You must leap, and trust that someone will catch you.

>>34068070
>You must embrace what you fear once again, and fight fire with fire.

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>close vote

I'll give it a few more minutes, the differences between these options are sizeable.

>>34068070
>You must embrace what you fear once again, and fight fire with fire.

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>>34068579

Calling it.

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>Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgI1K1YU8Z4

“What... is... it?” Mado asks you, having noticed your tension.

“Fire,” you say tersely. “Upwind.”

Mado's eyes go wide with horror. “But – but that's where we need to go!”

You peer into the dark, twisted thicket ahead, your heart hammering with a fear deeper than consciousness. You can smell the approaching wildfire already, the faint wisps of woodsmoke growing more pungent by the second. In thickets this dense, your chances of survival are nil. Mado stiffens as the laughter sounds again, close enough for her to hear – and this time its no soft, smug snicker, but a wicked, spiteful sound of angry, twisted glee.

“We have to run,” Mado says.

You shake your head. “Once the fire crowns and the wind catches it, it'll outrun us easily.”

“What do we do!?” Mado cries, fear and despair evident on her face.

>>34069501

You rub the Patch through your shirt pocket, tracing the heavy stitching for comfort. You tear it out and cup it in both hands like a talisman, trying to fight down the shallow wheezing breaths coming quicker and quicker. You could rely on that Patch, pray to God that it'll reach down and lift you out of certain death, away from the licking flames and roaring beast that's coming towards you now, a trap of your own devising.

“The patch,” Mado says, grabbing your arm with both hands and standing on tip-toe to shout in your ear. “Didn't you say it was from a forest-fire fighter? Won't that do something!?”

You squeeze your eyes shut and press it against your racing heart as fear surges through your veins. You should've known better. You should've fucking known. The draft – the draft /you created/ is bearing down on you and now you'll pay for kindling death to save your own hide, heedless of whomever else it might consume that you may live-

>>34069535

“USE IT!” Mado screams, yanking on your arm desperately. “STARK I DON'T- I DON'T WANT TO- STARK!”

-something terribly cold upon your forehead bites clean through your panic. You gasp in pain as the cold ache spears into your skull. You sag, clasping a hand to your forehead... and feeling the cold, sharp outline of a cross upon your brow.

“No,” you whisper.

“STARK!” Mado cries. “I can smell smoke Stark, please, we're so close to getting out of here,” she's rambling now, “we're so close and I don't want to burn, Stark, /please/-”

“We're not going to burn,” you sigh as the Patch pulses with cool reassurance under your palm. You still can't remember his name, the man from the forest – but his parting symbol is yet with you.

The cross.

“We're not going to burn,” you say again, a hard edge creeping into your tone. “We're not going to crawl into a tinfoil bag and pray for salvation as the air's sucked out of our lungs.” You press the Patch against your chest hard, as if pledging upon it.

“I'll show you how to light a fire, you son of a bitch.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxdXhZbrdp8

>>34069624

holy fuck why didn't I find this sooner

NEW THEME

>>34069747
Well, I like Two Steps From Hell too, though. They've got some nice stuff.

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theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxdXhZbrdp8

You grab Madotsuki's hand and yank her off the tree as you lunge forward, running full-speed towards the fire. Mado screams, wrenching at your hand.

“Mado,” you say, turning about to look her in the eye. “Do you trust me?”

She stares at you, her warm brown eyes wide and wet – and nods.

“Then come,” you say, and continue running. Now Mado is struggling to keep up with you as you race through the woods towards death. The sinister silibance of wooshing flame creeping through tall brush can be heard ahead – you know that survival rides in the thin margin on the edge of the advancing flame. You throw your eyes upward, searching the wildly-thrashing canopy for openings – you need just the right spot, at the right range.

At last you notice a thinning of the leaves, and dart to the right, Mado's Mary-Janes slipping and sliding in the leaves as she struggles to follow. You dart into a scraggly little meadow, tall grass broken up by short dwarf pines. The violent draft is battering and whipping the grass.

Perfect.

Sprinting to the upwind edge of the meadow, you skid to a stop near a stumpy pine. You produce the Patch and lean over, touching it to the wide blanket of dead, dry needles beneath it.

“Come on, buddy,” you whisper. “Backburn.”

There's a spark, and a light, and the needles burst into flame.

>>34070071


“Stark!” Mado cries with alarm, but you just pull her back, standing between her and the flames. The little lick of flame spreads with an alarming WHOOSH! as the resin-soaked needles fairly detonate, the wind blowing the flames into the tall, whipping grass within seconds. Mado crouches behind you as the little meadow ignites, a violent firestorm that sweeps across the field in seconds. The heat batters against you, singing the tips of your hair, but instead of roasting the incredible heat seems to slide off you, shielding Mado from its wrath.
“Stark!” Mado cries. You look over your shoulder to find the first embers from the wildfire proper advancing through the thick, twisted branches behind you. Grabbing Mado's wrist, you stride forward over black, smoking earth, surrounded by a ring of fire. A gossamer veil of smoke rises and swirls from the advancing fire as you chase it across the meadow, the raging inferno pursuing from behind.

Mado squeals as an explosion sounds behind you; trees popping as their sap boils in the bark. Over the sharp reports and furnace-fury of the fire you hear the mad laughter again, a wild and vicious thing that dances and wails through the rising pillars of turgid smoke.

You reach the middle of the meadow and stop. The thundering inferno reaches the scorched earth and stops abruptly, unable to burn without fuel. You shove Mado to earth and crouch over her on all fours, letting your jacket drape open to cover her. The cyclonic, rushing wind drags smoke and gas and embers from the inferno behind, pelting your fireproof shoulders with flaming debris. It flies ahead and ignites the woods behind you, and soon the little blackened meadow is surrounded by the wildfire, the few lonely pines within it free-standing torches lighting up the predawn darkness.

>>34070473


In the flames behind you a horrible hue and cry rises, a sternum-vibrating bass bellow of mad rage. You grin with vengeful satisfaction as the mad howling races around the little meadow. The solid trunks of ancient trees are dark and vividly defined against the sea of red-orange embers, burnt clean of moss and lichens. Against this stark scene the Enemy is the only shadow, a dark flowing wisp that dances and capers with violent energy.

At length, the sound diminishes, and you watch the shadow slip away into the smoldering woods.

>Pursue
>Continue on

>>34070658
>Pursue
Caution is for the weak

>>34070658
>Continue on

>>34070658
>continue on

>>34070658
>Continue on
Don't pursue. We have yet to find a way to harm the Dancer. All we can do for now is drive him off.

>>34070658
>>Pursue

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>>34070725
>>34070735
>>34070754
>>34070824
>>34070829

You watch the shade sprint away, a dark, hot wrath blossoming in your heart. Its presence leaves an arcid, biting stench in the air, an aftertaste under the smoke. You could follow it by that, chase it through the stark wasteland of charred trees, run him to ground and chop him apart-

“Stark.”

You stop, and turn to look at the girl with both hands gripped on your wrist. “Stark.” The furnace-roar has subsided to the crackling pops of cooling charcoal.

“Stark,” she repeats, low and insistent.

You take a deep breath of wispy smoke and hot air, and let your axehead fall to the ground. “Sorry,” you mutter.

Madotsuki releases your wrist and just stares at you for a moment. You notice the beginning of dark circles under her eyes, matching the smears of soot on her face and bits of burnt grass clinging to her chestnut hair.

“... Mado?” you ask.

She stumbles a step closer.

“Eh?”

Her hands catch the edge of your jacket and hold. Closing her eyes, she tilts her head forward for a moment and takes a deep breath.

>Mado, we need to keep moving.
>Mado, if you try to kick me in the balls I'm gonna thump you.
>Spit it out already christ

>>34071436
>>Mado, if you try to kick me in the balls I'm gonna thump you.

I have a feeling we will need to deal with the dancing devil eventually, before we can get out. He'll be the BBEG with the THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM line.

>>34071436
>Mado, if you try to kick me in the balls I'm gonna thump you.

>>34071436
>Spit it out already christ

>>34071436
>Mado, if you try to kick me in the balls I'm gonna thump you.

>>34071436

>Spit it out already christ

Speak up, crazy girl.

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>>34071506
>>34071514
>>34071542

“Mado,” you say wearily, “if you try to kick me in the balls, i'mma /thump/ you.”

She looks up at you, blinking tiredly in confusion. Her hands drop off your jacket, and she takes a step back, slapping her hands to her face and rubbing her eyes as a tired sigh escapes her.

“I wasn't...” she shakes her head sharply, as if casting out the cobwebs. “Sorry. Its...” she glances aside, her expression drooping. “So much... so fast..” she takes a deep breath and expels it, and when she opens her eyes again some of the old, cold intelligence is back in them. “It's been a long day.”

“Yeah, well,” you return, “you know what helps with that? A good night's sleep.”

Mado blinks, once. Then she kicks a spray of ash at your shin. You give her the best tired grin you can scrape up, which isn't much – but its something.

“Lead on, Mado.”

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The little footpath resumes close by, the narrow track winding and weaving between the smoking bark of old trees. Afore long you reach the edge of the burn-path. The forest is thinner here, with less tangled built-up brush. Some of the smaller bushes are still smoking, but the thick, damp bark of the old trees is unmarred.

Ahead you see something rippling in the steady wind that's slipping through the well-tossed canopy to breeze through your hair; a fluttering, undulating length of fabric caught on a branch. As you draw nearer, you recognize the thin strands trailing from the canopy.

A parachute.

“There it is,” Mado says quietly, pointing. Below the faded olive-drab canopy is a low brick structure, covered with moss and almost lost in the backdrop.

An old well.

>>34072208
Let's hope Sadako is not home......

>>34072378
No, this place is for traumatized little girls, not traumatizing little girls.

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>>34072208

Madotsuki walks up to it and peers downwards. “This should do,” she says quietly. “Help me down.” You clasp each other's forearm tightly, and she swings her legs over the edge. Leaning over, one hand braced on the old moss-covered bricks, you lower her slowly into the dark shaft until she's dangling free. You can barely see the bottom of the shaft below her, but in the darkness you discern an unmarred, smooth pool of mud, the kind left by a dried-up puddle... and a single straw sandal, discarded to one side.

Madotsuki releases your arm and drops the last few feet to the bottom. She mutters something to herself, apparently thinking.

You lean against the side of the old well with both hands, letting your head dangle. The last... twenty minutes? Two hours? How long /has/ it been since you first entered the Windmill world and set about your task? You can't really tell. You can only race ahead as quickly as possible and hope you wake up still alive, with time to spare-

CAAAAW!

You twitch at the sudden, hoarse noise, so brazen against the steady silibant wind. The crow's sitting on the branch directly above you, the one that snagged the parachute.

“He came with his crow...” you whisper, then cock your head, staring at the bird. “Well, go on, snort some fire and lead,” you dare it – half expecting it to oblige. Instead, it simply cocks its own head and caws at you disdainfully.

Something about the fluttering parachute tugs at a memory, but only just...

… but then again, that's not so strange, is it? You fish out the Patch and rub it between thumb and forefinger thoughtfully, studying the little airplane graphic stitched upon it.

“Stark,” Mado's voice echoes from the well below. “Get ready.” In the dark, you see her kneeling, her knife raised high. She plunges it into the muddy earth. You hear the muted burbly pop! echo up to you, and stare in horrified confusion as the ground begins to well blood.

>>34072548

“Stark,” Mado's voice echoes from the well below. “Get ready.” In the dark, you see her kneeling, her knife raised high. She plunges it into the muddy earth. You hear the muted burbly pop! echo up to you, and stare in horrified confusion as the ground begins to well blood.

You lurch away from the well despite yourself, the wet, slick sounds of something slimy and moist sliding about rebounding off the walls of the brick shaft and redoubling themselves. After a moment, a huge red muscle, featureless and red like a tongue, slides into view, slowly climbing upwards. A moment later, Mado appears, her arms wrapped around it.

“Come on,” she says, loosening her grip and sliding out of sight with a long, wet 'shhhhhluck!' sound.

>>34072548

Snorting fire and lead... was he the pilot of that fighter? Any fighter planes have 'crow' as a nickname?

>>34072650
You reach out gingerly and poke the thing – it feels /exactly/ like a tongue, and almost as wet. Your belly does a nasty flop and the world seems to waver a bit before you catch yourself on the edge of the well.

“Its just like going down a pole,” you mutter to yourself. “Just like a pole just like a pole just like a pole-” you lunge forward, latching onto it and throwing your legs over the side of the well and its NOTHING like a fucking pole jesus christ its /wriggling/ under your hands like bloody intestines still attached at one en- URRRGHF-

“WATCH IT!” Mado shouts from below as you retch what little saliva you've got left to one side, your conciousness fraying around the edges as your lurching gorge presses the breath right out of your braAAAH SOMETHING KICKED YOU IN THE ASS-

the

ground.

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>>34072788
>"Bud" Anderson, on the wing of his P-51 Mustang "Old Crow"

holy shit

>>34072788
Searching for it just gets me a famous ace named Bud Anderson who referred to his Mustang fighter as the "Old Crow". I'm not sure if that has any relevance. Probably doesn't. The crow was a Haibane Renmei reference, anyway, so I'm not sure how to interpret it in the context of this. I think it's supposed to be a sign that the walls of this reality are breaking down, and we're starting to see things that aren't related to either Stark or Mado.

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>>34072972

You look up to see the bottom of the well-shaft, a little ring of light high above, with the red tentacle trailing up through it. Looking around-

JESUS FUCKMOTHERING -

“-EYADHGAF,” you choke, scrabbling backwards like a crab as you stare at the thing above you. A huge, almost shapeless red blob that towers high above you, higher than the portal you entered from. Two pupils roll around in eyes literally the size of dinner plates to regard you impassively – then they continue rolling around aimlessly, uninterested.

“Wh-wh-wwhat the-” you stammer, finding yourself in a dark place. A faint blood-red glow that emanates from the towering, blobby creature illuminates a faint circle of hard, white earth beneath you; little granules of sharp sand biting into your palms as you stagger upwards.

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>>34073351

“Just be glad you didn't meet Big Red,” Mado says with cool amusement. “You would've had to-”

“That's very fucking nice,” you snap, turning your eyes away from the strange thing and advancing towards a second tentacle that rises from the sandy ground, climbing towards a second, higher portal. “Come on-”

“Hold on,” Mado says with a sigh, reaching into her pocket. “I'm not strong enough to climb that thing unaided.”

“Fine,” you say, a bit brusquely, jerking a thumb at your back. “Climb on.”

“... what?”

“CLIMB. ON,” you say, your voice quavering a little bit. With a sigh, Mado complies, hopping up with a little “ay!” and flinging her arms around your neck. You grab the tounge tounge just like a fucking tounge its tasting me no no NO NO DON'T TH and stare upwards at the distant exit.

“Servos, don't fail me now,” you whisper, and start climbing, grabbing hand-over-hand as you fly up the slippery, slick /thing/ as fast as possible, eager to be quit of it. Mado's arms tighten around your neck as your feet sway side to side with each grasp, your biceps burning as you haul your way upwards.

The portal grows ever larger, a familiar, dim purple radiance leaking from it.

>>34073043

What did the crow mean/symbolize in Haibane Renmei? I never saw it.

>>34073440
It played some sort of psychopomp role. There was a recurring motif that the characters were all actually dead and in purgatory. The main character frequently dreamed of them and was led by them to places that helped her come to terms with...whatever happened to her, it was unclear. Notably, one guided her to a well in the woods, which she climbed down into and had some horrifying realizations. So that bodes well for what we're doing now, right?

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>>34073392

The portal grows ever larger, a familiar, dim purple radiance leaking from it.

You emerge in the Teleport Maze once more. Within a single hop you emerge on the purple block between the Plaza and the Sewers, appearing on the pad you hadn't taken before. You and Mado go charging into the Plaza, your hearts singing with fear and anticipation -

and walk right into a puddle. The wild, messy spaghetti pile of hoses is leaking at every joint, a few thin, wispy gysers of water venting from tiny holes in the more worn ones.

The lines are charged.

>>34073584
That's the most common explanation for Haibane Renmei. They're all dead and are in the walled city because they did something bad in their lives. They need to work towards getting out, or they get the black wings and are stuck in the city for the rest of their lives.

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>>34073641

A few minutes later, you and Mado are standing on a small purple block barely big enough to hold you, a few feet distant from the exit block, the one with the door that puffs smoke and radiates heat. Three attack lines sprout from the teleport pad, whipping around crazily as they spray water full-blast.

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Mado asks.

"Yeah, watch."

As the streams of water run off the edge, they cling to the new surface, obeying the selective gravity on each facing of the block. As more fluid pushes from behind, the water spreads, and slips over the bottom. Within several minutes, the incredible flow rate of the hoses has enveloped the entire cube in a growing, spherical ball of water, the upper edge of which is already creeping over the top of the doorjamb. Soon its fully submerged, streams of bubbles boiling and bubbling away from the edges.

As you watch, the weight of water finally overcomes the door, and it caves inward. A gigantic FWHOOMPH! of steam exposed as the water hits the superheated space behind it, and then the ball of fluid diminishes rapidly as it flows through the new exit.

You and Mado leap across the gap, your shoes skidding slightly on the damp surface, and without further ado, you enter.

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THAT'S A WRAP ALSO MY EYES ARE BLEEDING FUCK I WON'T HAVE FUN WAKING UP TOMORROW MORNING but its okay because we're running another goddamn thread tomorrow so BE THERE WOO

>>34073956
Hah! Take that, anomalous physics of the dreamworld. You work for us now!

>>34074086
Give greetings to Mado if you see her.

>>34074086
See you next time, man. Thanks for running. Now go to bed. We're the ones who are supposed to be losing sleep because of this quest, not you.

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>>34074171

will do. see y'alls tomorrow.

Thread isn't archived yet.

>>34074519

on it! thanks for reminder