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One Foot - Another Multiverse SI

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Vanargand said:
OR they are in the past and are seeing the final battle of a Young Yamamoto and Just-Quincy King *jesus his name

Remember the war with the quincy took place way after the creation of the Gotei 13 so~.
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A valid option save for the fact that Yoruichi's friends seem to recognize her and the delay in coms didn't seem suspicious to them.

I suspect shenanigans of some sort, not temporal, but shenanigans anyway.
 
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Chapter 028
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    • Not to do...

    -x-

    The order first came through the Central Forty-Six. It's amazing how many horror stories or tales of fuck-ups began like that. The Quincy Affair was the first example that came to mind, but there were dozens of others. Point in case or case in point: The Soul Society Civil War…

    When something disrupted the Kototsu two weeks ago, nobody was entirely sure what it was. Shinigami on missions to the Living World would return to the Soul Society after several weeks… on the same day they left, usually within the same hour. Suì-Fēng reported the discrepancy only to discover she was not the first and would not be the last.

    Upon returning with Rukia Kuchiki, the girl was immediately placed in lockdown for the time being. Until the damage done to the Kototsu of the Precipice World, the Dangai, was repaired… there would be no execution. With the execution being stalled, Suì-Fēng had time to look into our claims about Aizen.

    Two missions were assigned to her in that time.

    The first mission was to investigate the affairs of the Dangai and observe the happenings within the portal between worlds. They would be accompanied by the best that the Twelfth Division had to offer and a small medical staff issued by the Fourth Division.

    Some of the finest Onmitsukido operatives under Suì-Fēng went in the Dangai with those Shinigami. Following this was total communication silence. This was… odd. All other attempts to travel through the Dangai and take Shinigami into the Living World were relatively fine, except the odd time displacement.

    When it was discovered that a similar displacement was present in the Living World; Shinigami who went back and forth frequently would return to the Living World on the same day they departed led to the conclusion that the Kototsu hadn't been destroyed at all. Instead, it had presumably evolved into something different.

    The Kototsu existed on different laws than the rest of the universe and could not truly be destroyed. Readings from the Twelfth suggested that it was operating in different pathways at the moment and, perhaps, the initial terror of its loss was unfounded… complete radio silence said otherwise.

    I had a feeling I knew what happened to those Shinigami. The sheer number of Blanks we saw on our way here could not account for the swords they wielded and the masks on their faces. Blanks, I realized, didn't go through Hollowfication. But Shinigami could and did. Something happened to the Shinigami sent to the Dangai and…

    But that was just another theory.

    With a chunk of the Second Division otherwise occupied with the Dangai incidents, the second mission came as a complete surprise. Suì-Fēng was already working with her best and brightest on the Aizen investigation, so she only had the Patrol Corps to spare for the investigation of illegal weaponry in the noble houses.

    This was her first error.

    "My second error," she regaled, "Was having that no good, two-timing, backstabbing son of a bitch act as the leader of the teams sent. His record was spotless, oh sure. But looking back, it was suspicious. He said he was from the Rukongai, but we never checked that. We should have, but we didn't."

    Divisions got applicants from all over the Rukongai all the time. It would have been impossible to verify which were true and which were false. Faking documents to enter the Seireitei was nothing new or unheard of; it was hardly grounds for being kicked out of the Seireitei when your superiors were just as guilty as you at doing it.

    It seemed that even in the afterlife, red tape was the root of all evil. More than a few of the Soul Society's most famous or most infamous people, depending on your perspective, came from the anonymity provided by the faulty system. In this case, the person was most definitely infamous.

    "He couldn't even hold is liquor and he was able to cause this damage…" Suì-Fēng mused.

    "What was his name?" I asked. I already had a feeling I knew who it was. Illegal weapon manufacturing noble clan? Check. Onmitsukido Patrol Corps traitor? Check. Couldn't hold his liquor? I only knew one person with the latter two traits and a connection to the first, "It was Amagai, wasn't it?"

    "…how did you know that?" Suì-Fēng asked me with wide eyes, "Is our security really that awful?"

    I shook my head, "You give yourself too much credit. I'm," a quick glance was shared with Yoruichi, "I'm from the future. Spoiler alert: Cars that aren't my van don't fly in the future." She just gave me a half-lidded stare, "What? I thought you might be curious."

    "You know Shusuke Amagai." Suì-Fēng said to me, "So you must also know the name of the clan we were investigating."

    The Kasumioji Clan… yes, I knew them well enough. A noble clan that created parasitic pseudo-Zanpakuto, weapons that helped you in exchange for trying to kill you – the Bakkoto.

    "The ones who attacked us outside…" I trailed, "They were possessed by their weapons."

    She scoffed, "Possessed, nothing. They were disgruntled citizens and conscripted soldiers, controlled after being slain by weapons rightfully illegalized years ago. If they weren't dead before you killed them again, they might as well have been."

    When Amagai was pitted against the clan that supplied him with his Bakkoto, he defected from the Patrol Corps… More accurately, he and the Patrol Corps defected from the Onmitsukido. The Second Division, spread thin between their losses in the Dangai expedition and Amagai's betrayal, was forced to cancel any further investigations into Aizen's actions in favor of dealing with the issue of the defectors. Suì-Fēng considered the affair a personal issue, one that she would take part in with Omaeda.

    This would be her final mistake.

    "When the other noble clans heard that the Second Division was mobilizing to eliminate the Kasumioji, they probably feared their interests were at risk," Yoruichi theorized, "And at the behest of the Kasumioji, various lesser clans joined their defense."

    Suì-Fēng nodded, "That's exactly right. We expected only to face some defectors to our division. What we faced, instead, was an army wielding weapons we had little understanding of how to properly combat."

    The Bakkoto were an equalizer in the fight. Or, maybe, they were what tipped the scales to favor the Kasumioji forces. Now armed with weapons boosting their strength by significant margins, the Kasumioji were able to repel the remains of the Second Division. Suì-Fēng probably recognized how the fight was going and made the tactical decision to run around the back and decapitate the enemy leadership.

    Sever the head and the serpent dies; that was her reasoning. So she tried to kill who she felt was leading the rebellion. Suì-Fēng tried to kill Shusuke Amagai. But Amagai had other plans.

    "A Bakkoto that negates the powers of Zanpakuto," Uryu considered the idea of it, "For an enemy of the Soul Society to have something like that; and to have it so close to the Seireitei…" he trailed off into what must have been stunned silence.

    "I was outclassed." Suì-Fēng's voice was bitter, "I was beaten. I underestimated him and he took no chances and crushed me. I barely escaped alive. Omaeda wasn't so fortunate."

    Following the failed counterattack and terrible loss, Suì-Fēng reported to Head Captain Yamamoto. When he was informed of the growing Kasumioji rebellion, he moved to mobilize all forces against this growing threat. Rukia's execution was no longer on anybody's minds, nobody cared about that. A rebellion was happening now! They had to act.

    But the Thirteenth Division lacked the manpower necessary. Although they were mostly present in the Rukongai, they were being quickly overwhelmed. The Eleventh Division was useful for the open fighting, but they were just outclassed against the tactics being employed against them.

    Amagai, it should be said, was not a stupid person. If the conflict between his growing forces and the Seireitei became open, they would lose. Guerrilla tactics were employed. They would only act when the enemy was overwhelmingly outnumbered, they would retreat quickly and disappear, and they would leave traps all over the area to strike down their enemies. They never fought alone, they always fought together, and they were winning.

    The Divisions being sent to fight this issue weren't enough. Yamamoto issued a call to arms, declaring that the Soul Society was in a state of emergency. Bankai was permitted in and outside the Seireitei. The full force of the Gotei Thirteen was employed against the rebellion. Or it would have been.

    A surprise attack from Amagai decimated the Fifth Division. Sosuke Aizen disappeared in the conflict, but he was last seen losing to a group of assassins wielding Bakkoto. Captain Komamura and Captain Tousen both died defending one of Soul Society's gates…

    Gin Ichimaru has assumed control of the Fifth Division in addition to his current duties with the Third. As a former Lieutenant of that Division, it only made sense. But the Seventh and Ninth were left without leaders and the Fifth was particularly devastated by the attack in terms of casualties alone.

    Sever the head and the serpent dies. But, at least according to Suì-Fēng, Amagai did a better job of it than her and in a single night had slain three Captains while causing immense destruction to each of their Divisions. Including the effective destruction of the Second Division, since the start of the rebellion, four of the thirteen Divisions had been crushed.

    "Yesterday, the Head Captain involved himself directly against Amagai. He believed he could overpower the anti-Zanpakuto Bakkoto with experience and raw power." Suì-Fēng grimaced, "He was wrong."

    It didn't matter how strong he was, how long he'd wielded his Zanpakuto… what mattered was that he was using a Zanpakuto and the Bakkoto was just a solid hard counter to that. Left with nothing but his bare hands, sword skills, and kido, the Head Captain was lowered to an even match against Amagai.

    This lasted until Amagai entered Bankai and just wiped the floor with the man. Though Yamamoto survived the conflict, his loss to Amagai devastated morale among the Gotei.

    "I was there for that fight." Suì-Fēng told us, "I watched him lose. It was… indescribable. An unbelievable turn of events… I watched as we retreated into the Seireitei through collapsed walls and turned barracks and homes into fortresses. I watched the tables turn completely. And I ran."

    She retreated to the safe house and waited for help to arrive. But with the time distortion as it was, she arrived exactly in the time she left, several days ago. We arrived just in time for almost a week of this conflict to have passed. And if we spent a week here, a month here, or a year here, we would return to the Living World in the same hour that we left it.

    That would be the case until the issues being caused by the Dangai were fixed. But with everyone focused on the sudden civil war, nobody was focused on Rukia. And nobody was focused on the building army of Blanks turning into strange, Hollow-like creatures… probably made from what used to be Shinigami.

    And nobody paid attention to the fact that Aizen was an illusionist before he was a hypnotist. Nobody paid attention to the fact that Aizen had disappeared, that Tousen had 'died' while there were witnesses, and that Gin had assumed control of Aizen's broken Division just in time for the invasion to worsen.

    Everything about this felt wrong. Everything about this wasn't right. But what could we do?

    "Are we still rescuing Rukia?" Ichigo asked, "I…" he looked around the room. "I won't ask you to do this, anymore. Poe," he addressed me, "I asked you to come here, and to help me. But I don't think anybody was expecting this. This is…" It was out of my depth? It was beyond fucked, in all honesty.

    "Ichigo, if you're going to retract your request, then I'll have to hit you." I said to him. "You don't ask for someone's help and then tell them they don't need to stay. Even if everyone else leaves," and I hoped to god or whatever else as listening that they didn't, "I'll still be here."

    He looked to his friends. Uryu just adjusted his glasses and shifted his feet a little. "I will stay. I trained a week for coming here to save your friend; no plan survives contact with the enemy. We just need to improvise a new one."

    Orihime was enthusiastic, "Of course I'm staying! If I leave and you die, then what?" she said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

    Shishigawara looked at me, "Sir," 'senpai', I heard, "You're at the most risk since Orihime can't heal you. So if you die, it won't be her fault. It'll be mine for letting that happen! I won't let you down, sir!"

    "You're making me blush. Please, just call me 'Ars'… My friends call me that." I said to him in response.

    "…Aaaruzu?"

    "No, 'Ars'."

    "Aruju?"

    "…No, just call me 'Ars', man."

    "Achu?"

    I stared at him for a few seconds. My mouth opened to say something, but I stopped myself. I tried again, "Y-You know what…? Just call me 'Poe'. Everyone calls me 'Poe'."

    "Alright, Poe-senpai!"

    …Oh god why.

    -x-

    One Foot on the Platform
    OR: One Foot on the Train

    End-28
     
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    • (cackles.)

    You are going to let the Rider come out to play, won't you? The Ghost rider is the perfect counter to this guy, assuming you can get things nice and dark.

    I wonder what the penitence stare would do to a spirit?
     
    Silly rescue party.
    You said it yourselves, no one cares about Rukia, not with this rebellion.

    Aizen took the fake a week ago, and has already left for the living world to find the true one.

    Luckily, with the time distortion, you will be able to make it back for a last stand.
     
    Chapter 029
  • Threadmarks
    • What I...

    -x-

    Time and time again, revelations would be shared over a table and a few cups of tea. Sitting across from me at the tiny table was Yoruichi, and sitting at a corner was Kukaku slowly smoking her pipe. Ganju was elsewhere in the house, I didn't know. It didn't matter.

    It occurred to me, however, briefly, that I could now tell the story of how I shared drinks with two beautiful women. But the idea was dashed with the realization that it probably wasn't that significant a feat. A shame. I could have made it sound much better than it was.

    "He's still out there." I said to Yoruichi, "There's no way Amagai would be able to take him out."

    Aizen was not a magnificent bastard, he was the magnificent bastard. This was a man who used a girl with the power to stop him as bait to split the collective forces of his enemies in two. This was a man who, even with all his power sealed, was able to alter the perception of time for one of the series' most terrifying and powerful villains.

    Even without the ability to hypnotize you, as evidenced by Tousen, he could still manipulate you into doing his bidding with barely any effort at all. If something went south in his plans, he could just make new ones. The notion of Amagai actually beating Aizen was… silly.

    "I know," she said as she sipped her tea.

    Amagai, with his Bakkoto, was probably immune to Aizen's absolute hypnosis ability. But Aizen was strong, far too strong for Amagai to simply take down. This was a man who earned the respect of almost all the Hollows in Hueco Mundo. They did not follow him because he hypnotized them; they followed him because he had the power to back up his every word.

    "And if he's alive, so is Tousen. Komamura is probably dead. I don't know who else died, but…"

    "Poe, I realize this." Yoruichi paused in taking another sip. I just held my green tea, waiting for it to cool. "Even if I could prove Aizen was involved, I'm not sure it would be enough."

    "Oh," that was true. Proving Aizen was involved with causing the Soul Society Civil War would have helped discredit the man post-mortem, but it wouldn't prove he was still alive. Even so, it was a step in the right direction. But how didn't Yoruichi have a plan for that? It was obvious. "Why don't we just show everyone that the Central Forty-Six are dead?"

    "…excuse me," Kukaku nearly dropped her pipe, "What did you say?"

    "Aizen killed the Central Forty-Six," I answered, "He just murdered them and took their place for the past… I don't really know how long. But with his Zanpakuto, it was really easy in the original timeline. Why wouldn't he do it in this one?" I twirled the cup of tea in my hand a little, feeling the liquid slosh back and forth, "Nobody told you?"

    "No."

    I nodded slowly, "Probably forgot, then."

    Yoruichi looked like she was in the process of a conniption. Kukaku exhaled smoke while bearing an expression of awe, "Wow," she looked me up and down for a second. Her gaze went to Yoruichi, "When you told me he was an idiot, you weren't kidding."

    "Poe…" Yoruichi began. She stopped herself, "Poe… You don't just tell people these things."

    Was I staring at her with a half-lidded gaze? It felt that way, certainly. "Why not?" I asked her, "Kukaku's in on this, isn't she?" I eyed her, "Aren't you?"

    "I am…" Kukaku confirmed, "It's just… killing the Central Forty-Six is – I mean, I wouldn't put it past the guy to do it and there is no love lost there, but that is some heavy shit. You don't just do that."

    "He did, though." I stated simply, "Was I wrong to tell you?"

    "No… well, yes… Kid, I'm on Yoruichi's side with this one," Kukaku said to me, "Knowing the Central Forty-Six is taboo, they're supposed to be anonymous. Knowing they're dead is almost as bad. It implies the chance that you've seen something you shouldn't have. Yoruichi probably didn't say anything for the sake of plausible deniability if things fell through here."

    "We're in a civil war, Kukaku," Yoruichi said to her, "Poe's actually right for once." She glared at me, "That doesn't make your approach much better. Do you have to be so… blunt?"

    "I'm tired, I'm confused, my van's fucked, and we're stuck between the literal rock and hard place." I chugged my lukewarm green tea, "We're past the point where being blunt can hurt anyone. We need a new plan, and we need it now." I glanced at Kukaku, "Also, can I have a cold glass of water? I get you guys like tea, but it just gives me a headache."

    "Help yourself." Kukaku waved me off and turned her attention to Yoruichi, "He has a point. What's the new plan?"

    "…I don't know." Yoruichi admitted, "Aizen might be dead. But he might also be alive. If he's really dead, which I doubt, then we just need to deal with Amagai. If he isn't, then he might not even be in the Seireitei anymore… let alone the Soul Society."

    "So, in summary," I began as I sat down again with a glass of murky tap water, "We're boned."

    "Not necessarily." Yoruichi was quick to rebuke me, "We came here to rescue Rukia Kuchiki and we can still do that. We just need to figure out where she is being held."

    "A stealth mission, then?" Kukaku mused, "As much as I wish I could… I can't really help you there. Stealth's not my thing."

    I barked out a short laugh, "Yeah! Explosions all the way!" I made to fist bump her, but my arm hung there for a moment while I stared at her broken prosthetic with a half-formed smile. "Uh…" she stared at me. "I'll just… put my hand down…"

    "You do that." She deadpanned, "Fucking jackass…"

    "…The problem," Yoruichi continued, "Is that Aizen is still a major deciding factor in how we go about doing this."

    If Aizen really was either dead or not here, we'd have to deal with Amagai as a major threat. This was a man who could chew us up and spit us out, so we needed to be able to approach this properly. Combine that with the kill-on-sight orders that were being bounced between every Shinigami and their mothers… well, our problems were obvious.

    The alternative was that Aizen didn't really leave and he was orchestrating events behind the scenes, where we could not see him. This was a far more likely option, but it still left us with the threats of the previous scenario plus the looming sword of Suigetsu – at any moment, Aizen could swoop in like the Angel of Death and rip us apart. We'd never even know he was there.

    Both possibilities held the practical problem of the current civil war, but only one of the two required tinfoil hats. The question here was which one Aizen expected us to pick and which he had the better plan for, assuming he was involved in either one. Because there was no way in hell we were assuming Aizen was dead, not by Amagai's hands.

    "If we go with the option that he's not here… we'd be ignoring him," I mused, "And leaving him to his own devices, completely undisturbed. But if we go with the option that he is here, we'd be chasing shadows in the fog of an escalating war." When I said it out loud, it was even worse. "That son of a bitch blocked us in."

    Damned if we looked for him, damned if we didn't – he had us, and he probably knew it. Yeah, this above all else was what convinced me that Aizen was alive. If he was dead he wouldn't have been able to screw us over to this extent. The whole thing was just too perfect for him.

    "We can't focus on him." Yoruichi sighed, "He has made that completely impossible."

    "And we can't just not focus on him, because – well, I mean…" I struggled for words, "Because he's Aizen." I finally spat, "Let's look at what we have to work with. There's a civil war going on. We know both sides of the conflict. One side has Rukia as prisoner, but that doesn't mean they have to be enemies."

    "…Poe, I don't know what you're about to say, but I'm fairly certain I won't like it."

    "No, no, no… It's a great idea, the best I've ever had. Hear me out." With my hands, I gestured frantically to get my point across, "First, we get Suì-Fēng to deliver a message from us to the Soul Society leadership – the Head Captain, if we have to." Yoruichi's eyes slowly grew wider and wider. "Step two, he will receive our message with open arms. Step three, we do a little… stuff… and step four, he lets us leave with Rukia, arm in arm. Mission accomplished."

    "What's the message?" Kukaku asked pertinently.

    I coughed, "Well, I don't want to write it, since I can't write or read anything but my native tongue at the moment…" fucking blue squares, "But, I bet Yoruichi can write!"

    "That's not how Hell Butterflies work…" she sighed.

    "If I had to dictate what the message would be, though… it'd probably be something like–" a thought occurred, "Wait, he can read English, yeah?"

    Kukaku nodded, "He can. Or at least, he should be able to. The man is thousands of years old. You pick stuff up at that age…" she considered.

    "Great! I'm going to need a Hell Butterfly and some spare paper. And some kind of writing implement, preferably a pen." I received two worn-down crayons and three paper napkins with the explanation of everything else having effectively been reduced to ashes by the recent, literal firefight.

    It took me all of ten minutes to get what I needed to say on paper. For a moment, I eyed the Hell Butterfly that had suddenly been supplied to me. How does one send messages through these things again? I knew they could record messages, but I'm sure they could also pick up notes… Yoruichi took the napkins and shoved it in the general direction of what I assumed was the Hell Butterfly's mouth – I blinked, "Two things, first, is that how it works? Really? And second, what happened to using Suì-Fēng as a middle man?"

    "Yes this is how it works, Poe," she explained to me like I was a child. Fresh out of patience and clearly out of fucks to give she gave me a hollow stare, "No, the Hell Butterfly did not eat your crayon and napkin message to the Head Captain."

    "…Oh." I exhaled, "Uh, so about using Suì-Fēng…?"

    "I brought my own Hell Butterflies."

    Well, Yoruichi was a Shinigami. It shouldn't be a surprise that she would have access to Hell Butterflies… I nodded, "Okay. That makes sense." Another thought occurred to me, "Uh, so, the message has been sent?"

    "Yes." She raised an eyebrow, "Your plans are generally bad, but any plan is better than no plan, at the moment. I trust that you didn't overstep your bounds and send something completely inappropriate…?" she stared at me.

    I thought very hard about that and, ultimately, decided that the honest answer was the best option, "I have no idea."

    -x-

    Captain Commander Major General Super Awesome Yami Guy,

    After hearing of your horrific plight and the tragic loss of three four Divisions to a group of assholes rebels monsters revolutionaries people who shared sharp disagreements with your policies, I have decided most verily to assist your endeavors. Now while I am sure that you do not know who I am, you will learn who I am through my actions – my incredibly generous and in no way two-faced actions. And you will learn that I'm actually a pretty stand-up guy. This is especially the case for people who keep their promises and follow through on their bargains. (Pay attention to this, by the way. It's crucial that you do.)

    With the full knowledge that you are exactly the sort who keeps said promises and follows through on their bargains, I promise you the assistance of both myself and my motley band of marauding men and women – one of whom you may or may not know – and, with this promise, do swear for the time being to serve the Soul Society's better interests in the short-term future. I say the short-term future because this is a promise not to last much longer than however long this war lasts. And how, you may ask, can we be certain this is not a long-term arrangement?

    To be clear, friend, we are sure because our promise is actually a bargain – but really, they're the same thing. Politics. Am I right? The bargain would, naturally, be more to your benefit than to ours for what could possibly benefit us except the smallest, tiniest, most incredibly short cost of a certain individual who most likely has fallen into your fairly recent possession…? I do not presume to assume that you hold a little girl in a tower like a fire-breathing dragon in a fairy tale, but the fact that I could allude to the comparison says not very good things about your P.R. And P.R. keeps the world going round, kind of like the hands of a clock. Speaking of hands, please do not allow any unpleasant hands near the individual in question whose name you should probably know at this point.

    But I fear I ramble. And as fear is the enemy of all mankind, and soulkind, and just kindness in general, I feel it best to get all fear off the table with the proposal that we receive the cute midget princess most promptly. We could not possibly ask for her before we do the deed that would be promised to you – our services most divine and holy like a fresh New York (or New Jersey) bagel on Monday morning. And what services, you might be asking yourself as you scratch your bald, scarred head could we be offering? What could we possibly give you that would make you certain that an arrangement between us is not just the best option, but THE BEST option? What could be given and what could we give you?

    In exchange for our incredibly brief and most stalwart progression of action to prevent long-term relations and strengthen short-term relations like lead strengthens steel until it is exposed to harsh, clashing temperatures, we do hereby issue the promise to eliminate the major threat that seems to be bothering your poor, wrinkled self. To summarize, we're going to kill Shusuke Amagai. And if we do this, we'd like Rukia Kuchiki to be delivered to us – if you are to wrap a bow on her, please note that we prefer bright red bows. Also, none of that prison robe stuff. And we would further like a flock of personal Hell Butterflies to use at our convenience a monster truck some samples of your finest candies a guarantee that you won't back out of our deal. Though we acknowledge that you are an honest person who upholds promises and bargains, the assurance that you won't set us on fire would be most welcome!

    Thus, if you reply to this humble message with an agreement, please don't kill us. Seriously. That would be rude. And if you do not agree to our admittedly unusual proposal, then don't bother replying at all. Just burn this message – if you're able to burn this message. Uh, can you burn this message? I'd like to know if you can burn spiritual paper, because I'm not entirely sure.

    Hugs and Kisses,

    Poe R.R. Acti

    -x-

    One Foot on the Platform
    OR: One Foot on the Train

    End-29
     
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    • There isn't a big enough facepalm picture I can post here to encompass what I'm feeling about Poe's latest insanity.
     
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