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rw-ethology · 1 year

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Slugcats, Sociality and Altruism

Seems like a decent place to kick off the blog :)

Even from just the intro cutscenes, dreams, and alike that provide a glimpse into their lives before braving the harsh ecosystem alone, it's easy to tell that slugcats in general are very much a sociable sort. Whether part of a large colony like Gourmand's appears to be or the single family shown in Monk and Survivor's cinematics, none of the "wild" slugcats we actually get to learn about the circumstances of are alone before the events of the game- and some of them don't stay that way either, with the recent introduction of lost slugpups to find and take care of. But what's so unique about that?

(Long post under cut.)

At first it might not seem like anything special- a given, even. Animals grouping up or remaining with their families into adulthood, eating, sleeping, grooming and playing together, isn't that unusual; even if you're not particularly bothered about companionship, there are many survival benefits to being part of a closeknit group when you're a small and squishy prey animal. Perhaps most straightforwardly, the statistical odds of you specifically being picked off by a predator go way down when your prospective attacker has more targets to choose from, and more trying to drive it off- safety in numbers is a given, when it comes to everything from finding food to raising offspring. The more eyes and ears and hands the better, and it just so happens many creatures that do this are also very sociable with each other.

Sociality to the sheer extent slugcats seem to take it, though is actually considerably rare in the animal kingdom. A lot of animals, even those that are very close with their families, simply don't care all too much about anything outside of their immediate circle- while protecting their own mate and offspring is important, any stranger could be a potential threat or after their valuable resources, and there's little reason to expend time and energy rearing young that aren't theirs. But then in certain more large-brained, intelligent species (and slugcats are undeniably intelligent), where the payoffs and benefits of collaboration and compassionate acts between peers become great enough to create a huge social advantage, things can get a little more interesting. Over time, evolutionarily, an emotional motivation to help others in need starts to emerge.

This is a big deal! Animals with lower comparative intelligence just don't do this; this particular response goes beyond instinct, it creates the capacity for true altruistic behaviour, even in the absence of any immediate tangible reward. And considering the behaviour is learned, reinforced and reciprocated between an entire group so that everybody benefits, it's easy to see how it's so effective. For virtually any creature on its own, missing one too many meals or becoming badly injured or otherwise incapacitated can be as good as a death sentence. Within a group that's personally invested in your wellbeing, however, you've got the insurance of the stronger, fitter members of your family being willing to provide for you catch-free while you can't for yourself, giving you increased survival odds that other animals in the same predicament simply don't get. In a world where just about everything larger than you wants to eat you, having companions who would rather nobody gets served up for dinner is one of the biggest advantages you can have!

However, problems do arise when you lose that advantage of numbers. Having apparently evolved to pass up on sharp edges and defensive strategies in exchange for smarts and compassion, a lone slugcat with no support system has little to rely on but their own resourcefulness to survive- while also likely battling the psychological effects of separation and loss commonly observed in highly social animals. But not all hope is necessarily lost; even in the absence of their own kin, a slugcat's motivation to care is hard-wired, and evidently not limited to their conspecifics either. They can befriend scavengers, another intelligent, social species with a similar inclination to return favours and good deeds; tame lizards (their own predators!) by acting as a provider of food or rescuing them from harm, which will then defend you against others; and in some campaigns, take in lost pups as their own, who will also attempt to come to their aid when in danger. And then, of course, there's perhaps the most interesting friends they could make in the circumstances.

After all, it would be amiss not to mention their apparent affinity for meddling in the affairs of passing gods! Whether or not you fetch them in your own playthroughs, Looks to the Moon has more neurons the later you encounter her in the timeline, and by Rivulet's time even the old cloak recoverable from the depths of her superstructure, suggesting their canon* retrieval- not to mention the events of Rivulet's entire campaign. Considering extending kindness to something as wildly different to them as an iterator is clearly not a stretch for even wild slugcats, it's probably not just a coincidence they seem to make such effective purposed messengers, either; there are likely stronger, faster options to choose from, sure, but you'd be hard pressed to find a creature more loyal, versatile and sympathetic to the plights of others anywhere else.

All things considered no matter the campaign or how aggressively you personally play, just from looking at the overarching plot and events considered canon, it can be said everything happens as it does because slugcats are just how they are- motivated to act based on how strongly they feel for others, whether for better or for worse (read: Artificer's grief-driven rampage). Despite being just another little creature struggling their way through the cycle, time and time again a lowly slugcat manages to affect the world around them and/or its inhabitants in ways far beyond their comprehension and well into the future, just by following their nature. If things were any different, in all likelihood the overarching story and timeline as we know it wouldn't be remotely the same!

*Not technically confirmed as far as I can tell, but for the purposes of this post I am going with the implication that Monk and/or Survivor are responsible for the extra neurons and returned cloak.

#slightly nervous buT HERE WE GO #youve heard of humans will pack bond with anything now get ready for slugcats will pack bond with anything #i know the boring answer is that we are playing as them so ofc they do what we want to do. and sometimes we want to make friends #but this blog is for FUN answers #if you liked or found this an interesting read id love if you'd consider reblogging!! this blog is Extremely new itd help a lot :)#and since this is the first post i will say double if you see any inconsistencies or something i missed or want anything clarified lmk #rain world #rainworld #downpour spoilers #rain world downpour #rw-ethology #main post #slugcats

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velveticamoon · 2 years

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CONFESSIONS.

— PETER PARKER X FEM! READER [established relationship]

SYNOPSIS: you’re trying to focus in class, but peter missed you and just wants some of your attention.

WORD COUNT: 1.7k

WARNINGS: some cursing, but it's mostly just fluff <3

A/N: omg she’s alive 😟 hope y’all haven’t been starving too much while i’ve been gone 😁 anyways i’m back to feed u hungry hungry hippos with some content of my most beloved boy of all time peter parker <3 (there was no incentive behind why i wanted to start writing for him i just am deal with it ♥)

— feedback & reblogs are always appreciated! and without further ado, hope you enjoy, and have a great day ;)

- mimi

mind dizzy, your eyes have a hard time focusing on your professor ranting about his crappy coffee for the umpteenth time that evening, comically waving his arms around in a grumpy manner as he continues to defer from the supposed lecture's topic at hand.

on any other occasion, you would be welcoming the self-provoked intrusion during a lesson; but given the fact that you've been awake since five in the morning, and the clock on your phone screen was now throwing the fact that it was seven p.m in your face, you weren't exactly thrilled by the unexpected extension during this class.

you sigh, blinking your eyes rapidly in a pitiful attempt to keep your eyes open. you hear the lecture hall doors open behind you, and you start to think "who in their right mind would think about showing up now instead of just fucking off for the rest of the night like a normal person??"

the only reason why you were even in this class was because it was "absolutely impossible" for the professor to move it around to a more reasonable hour of the day, plus the added fact that it was mandatory for you to take. you had to remind yourself constantly that this course would only be lasting for six weeks anyways, but your desperate attempts to cheer yourself up didn't ease your exhaustion.

your eyes shifted to the previously unoccupied seat next to you, and you had to do a double take before realizing who it was that sat next to you.

"peter?" you whispered, trying your hardest to keep your voice down. your professor was known for having the ears of a bat, always taking any opportunity he could in order to tell his students to shut up. you were convinced it was one of his greatest sources of happiness, aside from the copious amounts of danishes he consumes.

"hey babe," peter smiled brightly beside you, his hair looking slightly disheveled, no doubt from the rain pouring outside which he probably tried to evade by running through as fast as he could.

"what're you doing here? i'm glad you're here, but i thought we were hooking up later tonight?" you and peter had your weekly movie night reserved for thursdays.

in the earlier stages of your relationship, peter was usually too busy with patrolling most nights, but over time he had realized just how much it was affecting you as much as it was affecting him by not being able to see you. he made it a promise to reserve thursday nights for you and you only, with happy being willing (begrudgingly) to help him out with his shenanigans.

what can he say? he loves you two, especially when it means you're able to preoccupy him for at least one night to give him some peace and quiet.

"my lecture ended early, so i figured i'd come by and visit you and walk you home before we hung out," he said, shrugging his jacket off and hanging it on the back of his chair. he ruffled his hair slightly, and picked up the latte you had in front of you, taking a sip before saying, "plus, i kinda forgot my umbrella, and you always have one on you so i was hoping we could share," he smiled, chuckling when you snatched your coffee back from his cold hands.

"ah, so you only came by to use me and steal my coffee. didn't realize just how materialistic you were parker," you playfully glared at him, and he chuckled before throwing an arm behind your chair, his hand slightly stroking your shoulder before going to play with the ends of your hair.

"you caught me, but it's your fault for making it so easy for me to use you, pretty girl," he squeezed your shoulder, his eyes crinkling from the unamused glance you threw his way.

you scoffed lightly, rolling your eyes and turning them back to your notebook. "my fault, huh? have fun walking back home in the rain with no umbrella then," you tilted your head, holding back your grin when he gasped dramatically, as he reached for both of your shoulders, shaking you lightly in protest at your retort.

"y/n/n, baby, you can't do this to me, if i get sick from the rain you're the one that's gonna be taking care of me, and i know you won't even let me kiss you because you won't wanna get sick- which i one hundred percent condone by the way, because you deserve to be healthy at all times, but still, i won't be able to kiss you because of how stubborn you are," he rambled, pouting as he laid his head on your shoulder.

you turned you head towards him, your right hand coming up to cup his cheek as you playfully whispered, " what gave you the impression that i was gonna kiss you at all after everything you said?"

his head jolted up, his hands grabbing yours as he whined apologies profusely, begging you to forgive him, and you bit your lip to keep yourself from bursting out into laughter.

however, his pleads were stopped abruptly as your professor was now standing in front of the two of you, you both sat up straight, peter's hands still clinging to yours.

"what exactly is so important that the two of you can't wait to disrupt the class over?" his voice boomed, snickers could be heard all throughout the lecture room. peter's eyes were blown wide open, his mouth opened to say something, but you beat him to it.

"sorry sir, we got a little bit distracted, and didn't realize that we were being too disruptive. we'll keep it down from now on," you politely said, the professor was slightly surprised at your composure and how sure you seemed, considering he was so used to students blubbering after being called out so openly. the disappointment in his eyes was almost too noticeable, and it left an uneasy feeling in your stomach.

he nodded curtly, and started walking back down towards the monitor at the front of the room, continuing on with his lecture.

you sighed lightly, and peter was finally able to take note of just how tired you looked. your hair was a little disheveled, and the way your eyes were drooping slightly, paired with the increased amount of coffee you'd been drinking the past few days was concerning to him.

he wanted to comfort you, but knew that talking was out of the question. "y/n wasn't kidding when she said he hears everything, i don't think i was even being that loud, was i??"

his eyes trailed down towards your notebook that hadn't been touched in quite a while, it seems. he lifted your hand up off of it, and you didn't think twice when he took it from under your arm, along with your pencil sitting next to it.

your focus was trained back on the lecture at hand, and that gave peter the perfect opportunity to write down some of his thoughts to you.

a couple moments later, he tapped your arm, pointing to your notebook where the words 'are u ok?' were written in his messy handwriting.

you smiled lightly at his gesture, taking the pencil from him and writing back, 'yeah, i'm fine, he just drains me,' before turning back to the monitor.

peter thinks for a second, and presses the pencil back down to the paper, his now damp hair flopping over his eyes in the process. he pushes the notebook back to you, and you look down where it says 'i can tell, and how are we the ones being disturbing when he can barely keep himself focused on anything like wtf??'

you snorted at that, grabbing the pencil from him when he passed it to you, his head leaning over your hand as you wrote, 'i kid you not, before you came in he spent a good 25 minutes complaining about the temperature of his coffee, and how he could tell the beans weren't organically processed due to the greater amount of bubbles around the rim of the cup, and how their appearance was more prolonged than normal.'

peter looked at you incredulously, whispering the word "seriously?" when you nodded, he blinked slowly, letting out a slight huff at the perplexity of your professor.

'damn, this dude really needs to get laid' peter wrote, smiling at the way you giggled. his heart felt warm whenever he managed to make you smile.

you scribbled something else on the page, peter eyeing you curiously. when you turned the paper over to him, he smiled and tilted his head, resting it on his palm knowingly as he read your words.

'so, you still haven't told me why you really came by?' you looked at him with your eyebrows slightly raised, and he couldn't help but stare at you endearingly before grabbing the hand that held your pencil, guiding it as he made you write the words he was unable to say out loud due to the very nosy professor scouring the lecture room.

'i just missed you :)' he confessed, and you smiled softly, putting the pencil down, and lacing your fingers with his that were wrapped around your own, propping your other arm up on the table to hold your own head up, looking into his eyes.

"you're so cheesy," you whispered, nothing but pure adoration pouring through your words, as peter brought the back of your hand up to his lips, placing multiple light pecks along your knuckles.

"only for you, bug," he whispered back, as he leaned his head forward to place one more kiss on your temple, nuzzling his nose against the side of your head, eyes shut as he took in a whiff of your hair, letting his head rest there for a while.

you pulled your intertwined hands up to your own lips to place a sweet kiss on the back of his hand in return, holding them underneath your chin as you re-focused on the lecture.

he was an idiot for always showing up at the worst times. but you had to confess, that despite all those terrible times? he somehow managed to make them all feel not so bad.

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lys-jeorge · 6 months

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I just think that after this year rebuilding around Elyoya instead of Carzzy is kinda yelling "we're looking for fans the wins are secondary", and I can respect that on business level, but on a you're expecting me to watch this shit level I cannot

#carzzy is the better player and the better content he's just not french or spanish so it doesn't matter i guess #i am tilted by inconsistency #and somehow over the last 2 years we've got to that meaning being a carzzy lover and elyoya hater #idk #that's also why i have never accepted caps as goat #like no you cannot be shit as often as he is and be goat that's not ok #the existence of craps disproves caps goat that's just how it is #anyway not the point #the point is don't disrespect the chaos goblin adc he's too good for you shitters #the shitters in question being mad management not y'all #here we all love carzzy so there are no shitters #carzzy #mad lions

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13eyond13 · 5 months

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#so far in my sporadic picking away at various manga series i feel i have the weirdest reader relationships with JJBA and Attack on Titan #when reading JJBA i am not really that invested in the characters or even whats happening to them and yet i still never decide to dnf it #and i dont even know what it is that keeps me reading except that its just very unique i suppose?#such an odd combo of different things that somehow manages to eventually have its own sorta cohesive logic and charm #also the art is just fun. its ornate and goofy and macho and flamboyant and gross #but as soon as i put it down i stop thinking about it too #and dont feel like picking it up again for at least several more days #with attack on titan i found the art style mostly really bad at first ngl #it reminded me of awkward drawings a high schooler would make like the inconsistentness #of like there are good action poses here but the people also look weird ugly bland and stiff and the backgrounds are often so empty #idk i was feeling pretty blah about it but something about how starkly straight-forward the story is was interesting to me #where its literally exactly what you heard its just #theres a bunch of humanoid giants attacking our city #and we have to stop them. that's it #and also the awkwardness of the art style i find works extremely well when it comes to the titans #like they are genuinely creepy to me. and they do actually feel massive the way theyre drawn. and the mystery around them interests me too #anyways im like 60% through part 1 of jojo(also read most of part 4 a few years ago) and only on vol 3 of AoT #but yeah those are the 2 series i have the most mixed feelings about so far #wouldnt say i love or hate either of them but still also continue to want to find out more #13readsmanga #p

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kyistell · 2 months

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This was just a random idea I had. In my brain Central Jersey is the Jersey that shows the most, problem is is since CJ is so...let's go with disconnected, with the rest of the country he gets overwhelmed, and sure North could just switch in and South could do the same if they all wanted to scare the others with a southern accent that has the slang of the California coast, but watching a place that doesn't exist (it totally does btw) is way funnier.

Besides, by now all the other states that aren't the OG13 think that New Jersey has brown-looks red in certain light-eyes and it would scare the devil out of 'em if they see the red eyes that North actually has (and considering it's HIS body, it is far to tempting).

Also is it obvious that I love the idea that it's the Jersey's and not just Jersey, like I live here, if it's one singular state then I'm from Pennsylvania (I may have been born there but I sure as heaven ain't from there). Jersey would be three different states if we wanted to be associated with the rest of the country more than we already are, that and we may not agree on things but we don't HATE each other, we leave that for the rest of the country (plus let's be real, central wouldn't exist and then what would north and south argue about?)

Anyway as a proud Centralian looking at the news of the rest of the country is overwhelming, I just want to go skating, to the arcade, and continue lovin our favorite Devil, and down the shore when it's nice (and no, down don't mean literally down, though normally we are going down).

#welcome to the table #wttt #wttt new jersey #wttsh new jersey #wttt south jersey #wttt central jersey #wttt fanart #wttt headcanons #technically #gosh i love my state #we stay out of the way #generally #we're pretty simple #well to those who live here #and only sometimes #but we are consistently north #except we aren't #at all whatso ever #honestly we are more inconsistent than the whole country #and lets face it jersey could be its own country and be pretty much the same #hell maybe even better #anyway #jersey is probably the southern state of the north #its real northern in some places #but the rest #well it gets more southern the more your in...different places #honestly its hard to tell when your north or south if there aren't mountains or swamps or the ocean #like incredibly hard #it really shouldnt be #the south of the state should be southern

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goldentigerfestival · 1 month

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boy does Fluri make me feel things. a lot of things. i love. them.

#GTF Things #sometimes I wanna just write like. this gigantic post abt them. and why their relationship is perfected in context #but with the context of all the side material too? like drama CDs and the movie and the novel #bc plot/story inconsistencies aside it all really adds up in a straight line and creates an amazing story of their relationship #and for the life of me I cannot stop thinking about how all of it adds up into this super deeply realistic relationship #like it's not idealized. it's not perfect. it's not a shiny happy little ship where everything goes perfectly #it has all the bad moments where they still love each other through it but they DO hurt each other without truly meaning to #it's just that sometimes i wanna talk abt the depth of their relationship and how it goes so much deeper than #just what we got in the game but how all of it cumulates into what we have in the game from beginning to end #and how everything in the game (JP bc the dub removed a LOT of important tone between them vocally)#does also have a full progression of their relationship that ends in their favor and probably wouldn't EVER be rocky again after that #like I think by the end of the game they've come out on top of any possibility of ever letting that happen again #the unfortunate part is really just. idk who cares abt reading ship essays or who cares abt Fluri #except like idk five people LMAO. I know I'm kinda new here and don't know many ppl but #I legitimately don't know many ppl who care abt the ship at least particularly deeply as an OTP #but narratively speaking they are literally one of my favorite ships ever bc of how deep the content for them goes

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jemmo · 2 years

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so i’ve been doing some thinking on the thua situation, and have reached a point where i feel like i can explain his actions but am still angered by the inconsistency of it. whenever i rewatch the scenes, I keep thinking why didn’t he just go to akk and ayan, or even just their small group to discuss this?? i get that he wanted to kick up a fuss but it also doesn’t sit well with me that you have to hurt and shame people in the process of igniting change, even if you feel you deserve it, which I don’t think akk does. I’d feel better about him doing so if he didn’t know that chadok was really behind it, but when he explains himself he says that he realised that and moved target to chadok. yes, he doesn’t know the full extent of how akk is suffering bc of what chadok is, but as someone he is friends with, i just feel like the better thing to do would’ve been to deal with him privately and deal with chadok in public, explain that he’s wrong bc of the things he made akk do. but then you get to the fact that chadok was suffering too, which gets to an important point i think the show is trying to make. what is the human cost of change like this, what is at the core of it?? at the end of the day, so much of this harm stems from individual people that are themselves hurting, so how do we deal with that?? do we expose them and punish them?? or do we take them to one side and sort things out privately?? how do we weigh up the hurt they’ve done to other people vs the hurt they’re feeling themselves?? it’s a really hard question, and here you see the two different ends of the spectrum. aye finding out what akk did and treating him with gentleness and kindness nonetheless, making him feel like he can change in a comforting way that is both kind to him but also makes things better for everyone in the long run. and then thua, who doesn’t care about akk in the way aye does, and who makes a valid point that he should have to be held responsible for what he’s done, no matter how bad he feels about it. I think for this reason, im glad thua did what he did, to make this point. but in that, thua isn’t right, nor is aye, it just gives us reason to think about these things which is good.

and as for why thua did this, alongside what is stated, that he wants truth and wants this over, I think what he says when he explains himself both gives that explanation but also makes his actions contradictory. bc he keeps saying he wants the truth, for it to be out in the open so the lies and the curse can be over. which makes me think, who does that help that’s connected directly to thua?? who is so hung up on the curse that it makes him paranoid and angsty, makes him suppress himself and feel bad?? it’s kan. kan has always been fixated on the curse, and thua has seen how that’s affected him, literally seen how that’s changed him since he was younger. so yes, I think maybe that contributed to making thua do this, the fact he wants everyone to stop being so obsessed and hurt by this, no one more than kan. but at the same time, if i was kan listening fo what he says, things like “so that everyone would tell the truth” and “do you think it could be fixed by letting it go away quietly”, I’d find it hard not to relate that to the way kan has acted, keeping his feelings quiet, keeping up his bruce wayne lie, which is where the inconsistency comes in. he has the time and patience for kan to come to terms with his feelings and figure out what to do slowly and quietly, but for this he’s sick of lies, needs truth now, needs it out in the open and sorted?? yes these are two different things and yes thua would of course give kan a lot more time and space bc he cares much more, but then you get to the point that again this is an issue centred around humans, who thua is not giving the time and space he granted to kan. it hurts akk and aye and in a way hurts kan when thua says he needed answers and truth, something kan couldn’t give him for so long. at the end of the day, it’s hard to reconcile what thua did bc we feel and care for akk so much, bc he’s our character, we’ve seen his journey and struggles. if it was told from thua’s perspective, and akk was just part of this bad system doing bad things, you wouldn’t feel as upset or angry about his public exposure. but then again, i didn’t feel upset or angry about chadok’s public exposure, bc he wasn’t our character, he was our villain. but then you get underneath that all and find out what happened and realise he too was a man caught up in doing bad things for what he thought was right, to look after someone he loved. and the theme of akk being the new chadok is made even clearer, it’s just that akk has the people around him and the momentum of a different and progressed society to break him out of the cycle. it just begs the questions where is the line drawn when it comes to granting sympathy to those that have done wrong vs granting punishment, and what is the cost of making a change. everyone has their own ideas about how to bring about progress and what has to be done to achieve it, and for a show that is so reflective of our society and trying to be an allegory of systems that are in place for us, I think I’m ok with the fact that what I’m getting out of it is a nuanced discussion of how to dismantle these systems while not forgetting the humans involved in them, bc at the end of the day we are all just flawed humans, hurting, and making mistakes, and we all need to figure out how to reconcile with those actions before we think about moving forward

#this was messy but I just rlly needed to figure out my thoughts #and hey I’m alright with this #im alright with thua doing something a little bit wrong and inconsistent in order to make me think about this stuff #the aftermath is another matter im not so ok with bc I would’ve liked to see more discussion of how this affected everyone instead of #immediately moving on #but I like this #I like people being influenced and changed by their environment into wanting to do something #and I like that it isn’t the right thing it’s the thing that he feels is needed #which he isn’t right abiut it wasn’t needed #but neither is aye’s complete forgiveness of akks actions #hurting people still have to answer for what they’ve done #it’s just finding that middle ground of how to treat them is hard #but such an interesting point to bring up and I rlly like that #man I’m just here for all this political societal allegory and commentary I got from this #idk if this is what anyone else is vibing with but yeah I just love when we’re forced to remember that the root of these things is people #hurting and it makes it harder to deal with but is something we have to figure out to make progress #golf I see you and your genius and I adore it #and thua yes you I love you and the incorrect things you do #the eclipse

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