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autumnalwalker · 7 months

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ROY G BIV tag

Thank you for the tag, @druidx. This looks like a fun new one.

Passing the (entirely optional) tag to @rickie-the-storyteller, @on-noon, @yourlocalboredprocastinator, @ghost-town-story. @broodparasitism, @itusebastian, @void-botanist, and an open tag for anyone else.

Rules: Search your your writing for the colours of the rainbow and post the excerpt

Red: Empty Names - 14 - Down Low

When Ashan finds her some ten minutes later with a satiated smile on her face and watching the spider pull in their stygian catch from the lake, the cut on Eris’s forehead has already healed. None of the blood painting her new armor red is hers.

Orange: The Archivist's Journal, Day 78

As long as I’m writing, I suppose I ought to take a moment to describe the landing area. It was another jutting cliff with an arch on the end, like Siren Overlook and the one we encountered to the west. Twice could be a coincidence, but three times and I’m convinced the whole formation is artificial, not just the arch, columns, and pool. It wasn’t nearly so overgrown as the western dock – if anything the columns were in better shape than at Siren Overlook – but whereas Siren Overlook was mostly covered in short grass with the occasional tiny white flower or stubborn shrub this was a veritable field of bright orange flowers broken only by the water lily filled pool running down the center.

Yellow: The Archivist's Journal, Day 60

Doffing my boots and carrying them in one hand, I waded in a short ways as I walked the perimeter of the spring. It’s curious how unafraid the fish and turtles swimming the shallows were of me. Most I could practically get within arm’s length before they darted away, and if I stood still for a few minutes, small schools of finger-length yellow fish would congregate in my shadow.

Green: The Archivist's Journal, Day 9

Hurrying to catch up with my young companion I pushed my way through the crooked door only to nearly trip over her. The morning light had transformed the interior space from a surreal void to an awe-inspiring expanse. Light filled the central nave. As green leaf-filtered streams on the high side windows. As vertical golden rays replacing the prior night’s columns of rain from holes in the roof. As an iridescent wave coming in from the bare remains of a curved stained glass window backlighting the statue of the Reader. All this reflected off the broad leaf and moss-filled puddles that stretched across much of the floor, still not evaporated days later. The side aisles were a tangle of roots from the trees above, quite possibly doing as much to hold the structure up as the pillars separating aisle from nave.

Indigo: Witch's Testament: The Fighter

Weapons are raised and aimed. The crowd begins to back away. Someone above cracks a joke about how they should have just skipped to waving guns around if it was going to be this easy to solve the problem.

The crowd only backs off so far though, most that made it through the outer gate are still on the inside of it. Those still stuck beyond push one another over the wall so some might get a better view. A lone figure left behind by the receding sea of people remains standing in the middle of the reef of broken and smoking drones, tens of meters from the protesters behind him and the forces before him. His dark clothes are long and billowing. His pointed hat is wide brimmed to hide his face. His serpentine familiar, assembled from scavenged and stolen parts, coils up one arm, over his shoulders, and down the other.

Someone in the line of hired guns makes an incredulous remark under his breath about cosplaying wizards.

The man corrects him to say that he’s a witch and his voice echoes through every loudspeaker, portable device, and auditory implant in the building.

The witch strides forward, his eyes glowing indigo from the shadows beneath his hat and matched by those of his slowly uncoiling familiar.

Someone gives an order to fire and an electrified dart wizzes past the unperturbed witch. Six more darts miss. Rubber bullets are loaded and combat implants lock in firing trajectories.

To the eyes of the security personnel, every shot should be a hit but impossibly passes through their target and out the other side. To the eyes of the protestors the witch is walking through a hail of bullets that are all miraculously going astray. To the eyes of the witch, every implant-assisted firing solution coming from the soldiers before him is being outlined in indigo and nudged to exactly where he wants it.

The witch has already crossed the security line and is on the steps of the building behind them by the time someone catches on and spins around to aim and fire manually. His familiar rears up and hisses. The shot goes wide as the entire security contingent seizes up, spasms, and falls to the ground.

The moment the witch crosses the threshold, every light in the building goes out, every door unlocks save for those to the roof and underground garage, and every camera becomes a witch’s eye.

Violet: A Dream About Purple

We are all too busy watching the game to notice anything wrong until a third team tries to take the field. Their uniforms are purple and their hair appears to be dyed to match. All of them wear the same vacant smile that crawled its way out of the uncanny valley and speak with offputting singsong voices.

It is only then that we all look up and see the storm rolling in, stretching across the horizon with clouds of that same unnaturally vibrant violet. Eerie music rides the wind ahead of the storm, heralding its imminent arrival.

#tag game #writeblr #my writing #writers on tumblr #writing tag games #empty names #the archivist's journal #The Witches' Testaments #roy g biv tag #in retrospect this is just #find the word tag #That snippet for Indigo was actually written with this tag game in mind

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nehswritesstuffs · 7 months

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banish every gaslight; let clarity shine - Part 12

IT ONLY TOOK TWELVE CHAPTERS BUT WE'RE BEGINNING TO GET ANSWERS! Also heads up for body horror, because there's some of that in this chapter specifically, which is already intense, so I guess don't read this until you're ready to just be assaulted.

Part 1 [FFN/AO3] - Part 2 [FFN/AO3] - Part 3 [FFN/AO3] - Part 4 [FFN/AO3] - Part 5 [FFN/AO3] - Part 6 [FFN/AO3] - Part 7 [FFN/AO3] - Part 8 [FFN/AO3] - Part 9 [FFN/AO3] - Part 10 [FFN/AO3] - Part 11 [FFN/AO3]

Doflamingo puts his plans into action. Fates are decided. A princess is born. [3877 words; AU where there is a Third Corazón, whose existence makes Law’s life hell]

Ten years prior, in the exact same palace…

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Baby 5 laid on the bed in the infirmary, holding Lami’s hand as she watched her sleeping sister’s shallow breaths. It was just the two of them—Doflamingo and the other Elite Officers left hours beforehand—and the young teen wondered exactly how long that would keep.

“You can’t go,” she whispered. “It hasn’t been five years yet—I can’t lose you.”

There was no answer except the slight wheeze of Lami’s breathing.

“We still need to find all the festivals and get stomachaches from too much candy and do all the things we’ve been missing out on.” She sniffled and tried her best to not cry. “You can’t leave me with them, Lami… you can’t…”

Just then, the door to the infirmary slammed open, Doflamingo barging his way in without any of his normal entourage. Baby 5 bolted upright, surprised at his entrance.

“Dof—uh—Young Master!”

“Off the bed,” he ordered, pointing to a spot on the floor. The teen obeyed and hopped off the mattress and stood where he commanded. She saw that there was something squirming in his hand—it looked like a small person!

“What’s that…?” she wondered.

“Our ticket to better days,” he replied.

“She wuks vewy sick!” the small girl gasped as she saw Lami. Doflamingo took no heed and dangled her over the sleeping tween.

“Alright then, Dwarf,” he sneered. “Heal her. Now.”

“O…okay…” Her eyes already glistening, the small girl cried, her tears dropping onto Lami’s hand. They instantly absorbed into her skin, giving off a soft glow as it did so. Doflamingo then stepped back to stand next to Baby 5, watching with interest.

They waited.

…and waited.

Then, finally, Lami began to seize up and cough, all before grabbing for the empty bowl on the bedside table and vomiting in it. She heaved until there was sparkling white sludge coming out of her, it hitting the stoneware with a sickening thud.

It was purging her body of Amber Lead.

“Wat is dis…?” the small girl marveled, uncomfortable despite her curiosity. “Dis isn’t wike de ozzers I heal.” She cringed as Lami vomited some more, this being simply chunks with little bile attached. Baby 5 tried to go to her side, only for Doflamingo to put a hand on her head, stopping her.

“A foreign poison; my sister had a lot in her,” she explained instead. “It built up over years and years. She was born with a lot of it.”

“Den why don’t you have it too?”

“We’re not that kind of sisters.”

Suddenly, Lami began to scream in pain as her lesions began to raise and fall off her body, leaving gaping holes in her skin and muscle that slowly began to close up. Doflamingo’s grip became stronger, holding Baby 5 in place. The only pause in her screams was when she’d need to vomit chunks of metal, accompanied by what was more blood than anything.

“Hm; looks like the Dwarf is as advertised,” he scoffed casually. “Baby 5, clean her up when she’s done. Wait until it’s all out before approaching her.”

“…but Young Master…!”

“Just do it.” He took the small girl with him and left the room without so much as a thought. Soon as Baby 5 knew he was out of range, she rushed over to Lami, holding her hair back as she continued to vomit.

“Don’t touch me,” she whimpered. “It’s poison…”

“A little bit won’t hurt, especially not if it’s being forced out of you.” Baby 5 stroked her sister’s hair, only for the white ones to come out with her easy, gentle movements. Some of it even came with skin and diseased tissue, everything attempting to leave the tween at once. “After this… after you’re better, then we can run away and find Law-nii.”

“Good,” Lami shivered. She almost choked on a rather large chunk as it came up, instead spitting it into the basin. “Think we’ll be able to get a ship to take us directly to the North Blue?”

“If not, we can at least get out of here,” Baby 5 said quietly. “Grandfather, maybe?”

“No… fuck him,” Lami replied shakily. “He never came for us, so why should we pretend he cares?”

“He… he might have Law-nii…”

“Law-nii never came either.” Tears fell from her eyes as she hated her thoughts as they spilled across her tongue, stinging and tasting worse than the vomit. “He must not have gotten the Devil Fruit in time to save himself… I think he used that time on me…”

“It’s not your fault! Don’t say that!”

“Then where is he, Bee-nee?” Lami choked back a sob and felt like she was going to be sick some more. “Nothing but dying was going to keep him from finding us! Think about it! He’s… he’s not coming. We’re on our own. It won’t be a rescue mission—we’re going to be looking for a grave.”

“…Lami…” Baby 5 tried to not cry as she let Lami’s resolve steel her own thoughts. She held her sister close, pressing the side of her head to her shoulder as she rocked her gently. “I promise I won’t leave… we’ll stay together…”

“…because we’re all we have,” Lami realized. She picked up one of her shed lesions and stared at it, the hole it occupied in her arm nearly sealed. “We’re going to survive to bring justice to Law’s memory… to Flevance’s memory… we’re going to live.”

…because really, what choice did they have?

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Nearly a month passed as Lami recovered from the Amber Lead having been forcibly purged from her body. She got a little better every day, with her eventually finding Mansherry’s prison in order to thank her, with Baby 5’s assistance of course. Before long the pair were often headed towards the Dwarf’s cell, keeping her spirits up through the long days, as they were unable to free her.

“Look what I can do now!” Lami grinned. She did a somersault across the floor, nearly knocking into the picnic lunch Baby 5 had brought along. “I haven’t been able to do that since I was really little!”

“Dat’s wuvwee!” Mansherry crooned happily. “Wat are your pwans now dat you can wawk and wun?”

“We want to leave,” Baby 5 said. “It might take a while, but we’re going to get out of here.”

“Wat wud you do?”

“See if we can find where our brother ended up first,” Lami nodded. She took a bottle of water up to the cage and slowly refilled the Tontatta-sized barrel that was set up for Mansherry’s drinking supply. “We got separated in the North Blue and didn’t make it. I wanna find where he’s buried, if we can.”

“Wat about aftur dat?”

“Don’t know yet.” Lami capped the bottle and stared at a bit of the wall. “Is it okay for me to not really know what to do? Usually in the North Blue kids know long before now, and I’m already twelve.”

“I’m twewve!” Mansherry gasped. “Dat iz why we are gud fwiends!”

“I thought you wanted to make sure Flevance lives on,” Baby 5 noted. “Are you giving up on that?”

“Well, no, but I thought I should really think of something to do in the meantime,” Lami admitted.

“Wat kind of a pwace was Fwevansh?” Mansherry wondered. “Was it wuvwee?”

“Very lovely,” Lami grinned. “Everything sparkled—they called it the White City because of it. We were all rich and had good food and medicine and everyone was happy!”

“Den why did you weeve?”

“The stuff that made everything white and sparkly was the stuff your tears took out of my body. It was pretty and made us rich, but it poisoned us without us knowing. It killed my brother like it almost killed me.”

“Dat’s sad,” Mansherry frowned. “I dunno wat I’d do if I couldn’t go back to Tontatta!”

“You’ll get there one day,” Baby 5 assured. “One day we’ll all be free, and I think that will be the loveliest thing of all.”

“Yes! It would!” The small girl beamed brightly at her larger friends. “We’ll still be fweinds even wen we’re fwee, wight?”

“Of course we will,” Baby 5 promised. “One day, when all three of us are free, and Viola and her niece are free, we can all be together. How does that sound?”

“Da best!” Mansherry gasped. She held her arms out past the cage bars, reaching towards her friends. “Pwomise?”

“Promise,” Lami and Baby 5 said together. They touched their pinkie fingers to Mansherry’s hands and linked their free ones together—one day!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Unbeknownst to most, Doflamingo and the Elite Officers were hosting a rather important dignitary that very same afternoon. The elderly woman’s presence was not announced nor publicized, keeping the meeting only to the five of them.

“Quite the welcome you have here,” she noted as Pica pulled out a chair for her to sit in at the long table. “You seem to be doing well for yourself, Joker.”

“Oh, you know, it’s just a humble estate whose inheritance I came into recently,” Doflamingo smirked at that; she knew better. “Please, for insurance purposes, may you please demonstrate your Devil Fruit ability?”

Nodding silently, the woman glanced at Diamante and Trebol who were standing nearby and reached her hand out towards both of them. A gentle tug of thin air and filmstrip emerged from their foreheads, detailing their lunch from the day before. She let go and the filmstrip retracted back into their minds.

The Memo-Memo Fruit.

Doflamingo snapped his fingers and his three officers left the meeting room. He sat across the table from the woman as he sat with one leg swung over an armrest in an attempt to seem too casual.

“So then, Thelma… you’re the real deal,” he chuckled. “I’ve gone through a lot of trouble to find you.”

“Possibly not enough trouble; I am not in the habit of entertaining fools’ notions.”

“Oh, don’t worry��this will be worth your while.” He slid a folder across the table and she looked inside, eyebrows rising at what she saw. “That should more than cover your fee and travel expenses.”

“What do you need to have done?” Thelma inquired. Doflamingo preened.

“There is a young girl here and I need her to think she is my younger brother’s daughter by blood,” he said. “She is too clever to brainwash any way other than a Devil Fruit.”

“With the price you offered, I was expecting something more like the court or possibly the local Marine attaché, not a single child.”

“She is an important child who I’ve gone through a lot of trouble to keep alive and close.” He examined the fingernails on his right hand and scowled. “She must think that her father brought her to the organization very young and that her mother is dead—make up a reason. We all lived as a happy family until her father was killed by Marines out on a mission; the boy who he was with ran away, so make that sound a little suspect. Since then, I’ve been nothing but a wonderful, doting uncle, treating her as though she is my own, and that she has ambitions for the Heart Seat. For now, she is simply the Crown Princess of Dressrosa and my favorite of the younger members of my organization.”

“Won’t you need me to alter the rest of your Officers’ memories?”

“No—I command where, when, and how it is most effective,” he claimed. “The Elites are in on it while the rest shall know what it will mean to try to undo her programming. No… it’s the girl herself I need you to concentrate on.”

“Suit yourself,” Thelma sighed. “Where is she?”

“If not wandering the palace then she’s in her room; I’ve kept her there under the pretense of studying while building her strength. She’s used to being there; was sick for a long time. Might want to edit that out too.”

“Sick? With what?”

“Amber Lead Disease.” Thelma scowled. “What? You know as well as I do that it’s not contagious.”

“Tell me: why do you need a Flevench child to believe she is your kin?”

“To best take care of her, of course,” Doflamingo grinned wickedly. “Will you do it?”

“It’s either that or you kill me,” she scoffed. “The agreed amount is sufficient. My only concession is that I first get some time to recover from the journey—I might not be easy to find, but you are not easy to access, Joker.”

“I will give you that,” he nodded. “I’ll have you shown to guest quarters and you shall be allowed to rest in peace and privacy.” He then clapped his hands twice, signaling Diamante in the corridor to return. “See to it that our esteemed guest has comfortable accommodations where she shall not be disturbed. She has come a long way to our humble nation to help improve it and we need to let her know we appreciate it.”

“As you wish,” Diamante replied with a bow. He ushered Thelma out of the room and closed the door behind them, leaving Doflamingo alone.

All the Fallen Dragon could do was grin.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was finally the designated day and Doflamingo was pleased with the air of anticipation that permeated everything. He grinned almost manically as he knocked on Thelma’s door and told her to report to the infirmary. Afterwards he went to the room that Lami and Baby 5 shared, putting on an air of politeness by knocking first.

“Lami, I’ve got someone who wants to see you,” he said, poking his head inside the room. He saw the sisters sitting together on the bed reading different books; both stared at him curiously. “We were able to track down a special doctor who knows about your Amber Lead disease and wants to make sure nothing’s come back.”

“It wouldn’t,” Lami reasoned. “There’s nothing here that has Amber Lead in it.”

“True, but, this is also the only doctor who has not run away at the very idea of Amber Lead, correct?”

The girl thought about that, uncomfortable with how sound his logic was. “Well… I guess…”

“She is a guest—we cannot keep a guest waiting or it will be considered rude.”

“O… okay…” Lami climbed out of the bed, Baby 5 joining her to give the tween a hug.

“Don’t worry; I’ll make us a nice snack for when we’re done!” she said. Both of them eyed Doflamingo cautiously, though they still allowed their separation.

Grinning inwardly, Doflamingo brought Lami down to the infirmary and placed her on one of the beds—the same one that she had been laid up in with Amber Lead. The area was much cheerier now, with a light breeze coming in from the window and bright colors now adorning the curtains and walls. There was even fruit in the bowl on the sidetable… huh. There was never fruit there before…

“This is Thelma,” Doflamingo said, gesturing to the elderly woman nearby. “She is going to take good care of you.”

“She… she is…?” Lami looked at the stranger and knew something wasn’t right—this woman wasn’t a doctor. “Young Master…? What’s going on…?”

“Memory Scrub,” Thelma said darkly. She held her hand out and strings flew from it to Lami’s head, incapacitating her. The tween tried to struggle as the older woman pulled memories from her mind, browsing through them casually. “This child has seen more than her fair share of horrors. Are you sure you want me to edit this much? I am willing to give back part of my fee if it keeps her intact.”

“No—she must be free of them in order to become the perfect protege.” Doflamingo leaned over the bed and smiled wickedly as he met Lami’s gaze. “Wouldn’t you agree, my dear?”

“Fuck you,” Lami hissed with all her might. “I want to remember! I want to be free!”

“Too bad; I’m the adult here and adults know what’s best.” He straightened and took some steps back, putting distance between himself and the bed. “Do it.”

Thelma sighed heavily and looked Lami in the eyes as she pulled a pair of scissors from her pocket, silently mouthing an apology before making the initial cut. As she did, the girl’s body went rigid and her eyes blank; every new addition to the reel that appeared in front of them causing a new twitch of her limbs.

The minutes passed as Doflamingo watched Thelma work her ability on Lami’s mind. She cut entire sections of the girl’s memories out, edited others, and added new ones in, placing all the trimmings on the giant spool that grew with each addition. Her work continued on in silence punctuated only by Lami’s strained cries, until the door creaked open as Baby 5 entered backwards, doing her best to balance a tray filled with things for tea and snacks.

“You weren’t coming back so I thought I’d bring it here… since… you… aren’t… sick…”

The teen looked up and saw the spool and reels of memories hovering above Lami, the edited clippings that were strewn across the floor, and blanched.

“What are you doing?!” she screeched. She didn’t even remember that there had been a tray in her hands, the entire thing dropping to the floor and scattering everywhere. Baby 5 tried to run to Lami—was aiming to hit Thelma—and Doflamingo’s large hand stopped her, violently pushing her back into the mess on the floor. Food squished and smeared itself into her clothes and hair as shattered porcelain sliced her skin.

“Don’t you dare,” he snapped, moving to loom over her. His Haki beat down upon her, and although Baby 5 knew what it was to be afraid, she felt true fear as he glared at her in contempt. “Be glad I’m not making her take your memories too—naughty children need to know how bad they’ve been if they ever want to learn how to behave.”

“We’ve done everything you’ve asked! Stop it now! You’re killing my sister!”

“Don’t pretend you’re innocent in this.” Doflamingo sneered as he grabbed Baby 5 by her arm, holding her aloft as blood dripped all over the floor and his hand. “One more word about this out of you and I will stop looking the other way like the benevolent Master I am. I know more than you think… Child.”

She froze at that, eyes going wide. “What… what do you…?”

“Don’t play me for a fool,” he hissed. “I know you were the one who kept calling the Marines after my brother left us. I know you gave away our position every single time. I know that you had a hand in taking away my brother from me, and now… I’m going to take away your sister from you. She is your punishment, you ungrateful little shit, and do you want to know the best part?”

All she could do in response was squeak.

“You could tell her everything and she wouldn’t believe a word you said.” A chill ran down Baby 5’s entire body, ignoring the pain that was already there. “Then again, this plan wouldn’t work well if I used you instead—you’re not the smart one, are you?”

“You’re a fucking monster,” Baby 5 hissed, glaring at him with all the contempt she could muster. Doflamingo snarled and activated his Devil Fruit, restricting the teen’s body as he lifted her to be at his eye level.

“I am only taking from the world what I am owed.” He took off his sunglasses and met her eyes directly, a mangled and broken echo of a man now dead. “I don’t need permission from you or anyone else, brat. Since you let my preferred choice escape, there’s only one other option when it comes to which of you little shits will be my successor… which of you to raise in my image… which of you shall be my loyal and selfless right hand…”

“Dellinger worships you.”

“As all inferior species should,” he replied coldly. “What else do I have? Buffalo can barely tug himself off on his own and you’re too stupid to have accepted the training I offered you. I need you, Baby. Those words should have you running to my side.” He curled his fingers and the strings tightened against Baby 5’s body, drawing bits of blood where it cut into her limbs and neck. “Now at least I know you won’t betray me any further.”

“H-How do you know that…?”

“…because the one who has you at her beck and call won’t even begin to conceive of it.” He held her chin with his free hand and leaned in close. “Now you are going to stand there and watch, do you understand?”

“A… asshole…”

“Do not test me, Baby, or I’ll have her forget you as well.”

The teen simply squeaked, not able to verbalize the things she wanted to say. Oh, she wanted to tear into him, call him names, swear vengeance, hold him accountable, curse every string that made his pathetic self. He drove away her brother to die alone, murdered the only adult to ever genuinely help her and her siblings out of love, and now he was having her sister mutilated beyond anything she could imagine. She hated him with all her heart and now the only thing she could do was to put up with it...

…it was the only way to survive.

Satisfied, Doflamingo put his sunglasses back on and set Baby 5 on the floor again, loosening the strings around her as she stood next to him, back straight and hands at her sides as she watched Thelma continue her work. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she bit her lower lip in an effort to not sob loudly. Finally, Lami stilled, falling asleep in the now-sweat-soaked infirmary bed. Thelma held herself shakily against the sidetable as she went to sit, grateful that the chair was not far.

“It’s done,” she said. “When the child wakes up, she will be Donquixote Antonia and believe she always has been.” Doflamingo took a few steps towards them, observing the unconscious girl.

“…and you’re certain of that? There’s nothing that can reverse it?”

“Short of a miracle? Unlikely.”

“Good.”

At that, Doflamingo pulled a pistol out of his coat and fired, hitting Thelma in the side of her head and killing her instantly. It was all Baby 5 could do to smother her own scream as blood and brains spattered everywhere against the wall, including in the fruit bowl. The skin on an apple began to ripple, then shift, and developed a wavy, speckled pattern. Thelma’s corpse crumpled against the sidetable as Doflamingo picked the strange apple up.

The new Devil Fruit.

“Baby 5, clean this mess up,” he ordered dryly. “I need to make sure our buyer is still interested.” He walked out of the room and the teen’s legs finally gave way, her collapsing in horror on bloody knees in a puddle of tea and porcelain shards..

Fuck… what had he done…?

#One Piece #fan fiction #Trafalgar Lami #Baby 5 #Donquixote Doflamingo #Donquixote Pirates #I had to cut things from a backstory chapter again fml #this chapter has a lot of implications and idk how people should process it #it also brings me physical pain every time I have to write a Tontatta speaking and I guess this is the price I pay #Mansherry #Trafalgar D. Water Lami

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