Before I forget, though, (and in case you were wondering) this is how I was able to secure the walkthrough at @Orventa's workplace when @Pectus wasn't able to.
Past 3 days were ridiculously fun and wish I could do it all over again. @Drocilla and I had a temporary peace after lazer tag, but now back to animosity between us. Love to @Kelly, @Xena, and even @Revan for fun on the night before we all had to go back to our regular lives. @Yomoigu was awesome, though his grandmother was even more awesome, and I'm gonna steal her, and I have hilarious stories about his childhood for anyone looking. After so long living in the same city, @Dynami and I finally hung out, too bad it wasn't all that long, but hopefully can in the future. @Iorwen was all around awesome, @Daevos and I also put our animosity aside to shoot people at lazer tag, unfortunately because people don't know how to properly follow directions, we didn't win as much as we should have. All around love to everyone I hung out with from Saturday to today. I plan on writing up a sort of summary for certain "main" events for the past 3 days soon as I can, but will most likely be tomorrow after work.
From my perspective, this is an overall breakdown of the past 3 days:
Saturday:
Got on bus at 9 am, arrived in Chinatown DC close to 12. Call Kelly to save me and she directs me to the Metro stop, where I end up waiting for her and Xena for just over an hour.
Pre-Kelly/Xena arrival, a wild(always drunk) Revan arrived and we talked for a while.
Our now group of 4 made our way to Dupont Circle to checkin to our hotel and drop our stuff off.
Revan decided to shower and take a nap, so Kelly, Xena and I abandoned him to go see the monuments.
We walked quite a bit to get to the monuments and along the way, some worker guy gave Kelly the evil eye for stepping on a spot in the sidewalk where he was working.
We saw the Washington Monument from afar, discussed various things, like Xena's priorities, before reaching the Lincoln Memorial and taking a few pictures there.
Made our way around the pond thingy outside the memorial towards the Washington Monument, where we talked about Kelly's need to have a horse made of geese.
Executive decision to make our way towards the White House, and along the way, Xena stopped at several stands to search for souvenirs, somehow not realizing they all sold the same stuff. As Kelly and I waited, the trash briefly attacked her, then remembered who it was.
Even with a smart phone on hand, we ended up on the wrong side of the White House, where Xena was disappointed at the look of the back and Kelly was disappointed at the lack of snipers to fight.
After some sitting around outside the White House, and Kelly fulfilling her dream of taking a picture for some lady and her baby, we began to make our way to Nando's for dinner.
After some more walking, we arrived at Nando's, finding Yomo, Drocilla, Raezon, Zyrlen and Sior already present. After about an hour of waiting, the zoo group joined us, followed soon after by Daevos.
We ate, I took a few pictures of the group, Yomo bequeathed upon Xena and I the ability to freely slap Revan(have not used mine yet), I got Yomo with a well timed zinger about his love of wood, making me king of the meet, and then we split into various groups to make our way to some laser tag.
Kelly, Xena and I rode back to Kelly's place so Xena could change, then we drove to laser tag.
First round was a mess, but I got to shoot Drocilla and Daevos a bunch, along with Yomo. Second round I was teamed up with Drocilla and Daevos, but still got to shoot Yomo. Drocilla and I kinda ambushed Kelly and shot her a bunch. Some lady thought we were a church group, we took a group photo, then the place closed, but not before Daevos forgot his phone in there.
Sior then drove Revan and I back to our hotel, dropping Orventa and Iorwen off where they needed to be. In classic Revan form, he asked me if I wanted to get a drink before bed, then he decided he was too tired to do so.
From my perspective, this is an overall breakdown of the past 3 days
Made our way around the pond thingy outside the memorial towards the Washington Monument, where we talked about Kelly's need to have a horse made of geese.
Unless I read that wrong.. Did you just call the Reflecting Pool the pond thingy outside the memorial? >.>
From my perspective, this is an overall breakdown of the past 3 days
Made our way around the pond thingy outside the memorial towards the Washington Monument, where we talked about Kelly's need to have a horse made of geese.
Unless I read that wrong.. Did you just call the Reflecting Pool the pond thingy outside the memorial? >.>
Had a lot of fun at this meet even though I was very tired, the day before I had spent almost 12 hours on the road and did not really get a full nights sleep before driving down to DC. I am terrible and always forget my camera though! Anyhow, we got to DC and checked into the hotel and then went to try and meet up with our little group (the zoo group), but having been to DC before, I learned my lesson and knew better than driving any further than the hotel parking lot. But I was informed taking a bus would take in the are of 2 hours which was not overly acceptable.
Instead, the helpful front desk guy said the hotel would shuttle us to the metro and there was a train instead that would only take 45 minutes to an hour. So we got to enjoy a train ride instead! We got to the station and there were these evil machines.. first having to go through all this alien paperwork of "is it peek hour" "is there more than one passenger" then a whole lot of other stuff I dunno. The nifty nearby cop seemed to know what he was doing. Unfortunately, he had to do it like three of four times for us >.> darn machine did not like making change of anything over like twenty five cents and if you put anything higher it reset.
That aside, we got to the zoo, met up with our group, went to a cafe and ate. Had a horrible unfortunate luck of getting "ketchup" for the french fries that was in actuality barbeque sauce. Made some face, complained and went on about eating my chicken at the very least. Then we left with plenty of time to make it on time to Nando's. But atlas.. the zoo would not have it, we had to walk back up the hill the way we came instead of looping around and we decided to go look at the big cats and then to seals. By the time we left the zoo we should have been at Nando's.
We hopped on another train after a few went to Starbucks. We finally arrived at Nando's and good times ensued for the rest of the night.
When we parted ways, Jinx, Tremula, Zyrlen, Tyrad, and myself went to the Holiday Inn where we were all staying where a few amusing events took place. First being one Tremula posted above, if you did not get - Pectus could not make the reservation to the mansion for us so he took our tablet and made the reservation himself under the name Professor Alex Dawneye. Because a professor can get in anywhere. At the door I do believe they asked him what he was a professor in. Next year if I have my viking costume done I am sooo gonna wear it and make the reservation under the Supreme Commander and see how that goes.
Next, we found out the next morning and Tremula could probably tell this better than me but, he stayed with Zyrlen since there was an open bed. He went down to the lobby area because there were computers down there and was checking the forums and when he went back up to go to bed, he had the moment of - could not remember room number. So he knocked on a door. Was not the right room and god a very angry black lady at like 2 am. After he managed to get away from her he went down to the front desk (instead of coming to our room which he did remember). Dressed in his jammies with his bag, he asks the guy at the front desk for Zyrlen's room number with only a first name. Now, we have to pause and picture this scene for a moment. Then in the next thought that the front desk guy actually gave him the room number.
Good times, good times.
The soft, hollow voice of Nocht, the Silent resounds within your mind as His words echo through the aether, "Congratulations, Arimisia. Your mastery of vermin cannot be disputed."
First being one Tremula posted above, if you did not get - Pectus could not make the reservation to the mansion for us so he took our tablet and made the reservation himself under the name Professor Alex Dawneye. Because a professor can get in anywhere. At the door I do believe they asked him what he was a professor in.
@Iosen told me I was being dishonest and a scoundrel. I promptly informed him I was a collegium professor for the Cacophony and at the door told them I was an Adjunct Professor of Musical Composition. They treated me like I was the Pope and I proceeded to lead my group on a quest of the O Mansion (a wonderful RL representation of the Stewartsville Mansion) with a 1 million gold prize for whomever found the most secret doors (there are 70+ there!). Luckily I won the contest and didn't have to give @Arimisia back half the gold I got for selling my daughter. Ah, Magnagoran economics.
Now, though, I think it's time for my contingent's retelling!
Zyrlen, Iosen, and I rode up from the Norfolk area, roughly a three hour ride. Needless to say, at least to anyone who knows us, it was filled with almost nothing but bad jokes (bad puns and naughty nuns!). Luckily we thought to call @Orventa and got instructions that kept us from having to travel an extra 2~ hours. We parked at a parking complex at a small cluster of shoppes down the street from the zoo and decided to wait inside the Starbucks across the street. For those of you who don't know, I have a terrible case of sun allergy and it tries to kill me as much as possible.
We shot the breeze for a good ten minutes before Zyrlen had to leave for his lunch, leaving Iosen and I to fend for ourselves against all the denizens surrounding us. After he left to...erm...relieve himself I found myself desperately outnumbered until I smelt clean breezes and felt a chill against my skin. What I first assumed to be a faeling walked in and promptly saved my arse with a Heartstone, introducing herself as the very same Orventa I'd talked to on the phone.
We kept talking and fending off the bloodthirsty denizens who crowded around us until we got a message from @Iorwen that she was there. Unfortunately we misinterpreted her tell, because we left and crossed the street to enter the zoo before Iosen realised she was in the Starbucks where we just were! We fetched her and made introductions before braving the D.C. Nature Reserve, joined up by @Arimisia and her husband (who rustled at us for quite some time). She is correct that we could have been at Nando's on time, but between some claustrophobia on the Metro and disorientation (Americans do not take good care of their rail systems, and I was thrown around quite a bit, only weighing 90 pounds) we were lucky to make it at all.
I'll skip ahead to laser tag and conveniently skip my intense fangirling over at the restaurant. Even though @Yomoigu and @Drocilla left before everyone else, they were the last to show up and subsequently missed one of our games. When they did join, however, the Enchantress took full advantage of my devotion (I point-blank refused to shoot Her) to have the rest of the enemy team gang up on me. ...sad to say that Arimisia and I (the top DPS'ers of the Southern Alliance in laser tag) still managed to pull out at least one win against such a contingent of Divine.
The second round of shoot-'em-up, however, Drocilla and I managed to trick ourselves onto the same team. We wrecked face until we realised the other team (Yomoigu, Zyrlen, and @Sior did not take it easy on me after they saw my scores for the first round) was avoiding us completely to take advantage of our inexperienced teammates and attack our base. We quickly amended that in the next stage, creating an almost unbreakable wall through which they could not pass, me using my shielded body to block Drocilla from attack every time I was focused down by @Xena and @Kelly. Unfortunately, they simply hunted the rest of our team down and took advantage of their superior numbers.
However in the third stage I revealed my secret weapon, forged through years of trial and error in the deepest muck of the Taint hidden in Gorgulu's third armpit from the left, on Xena....the infamous WIGGLE WAGGLE OF TERROR. She was so struck with my terrifying demeanour she was struck down by hysterics, allowing Drocilla to use my body as cover and snipe her from over my shoulder.
Yomoigu and I came out even against each other in the end, but I was successful in my mission. No one touched the Enchantress unless we were separated by forces I could not control (I won't say who, but someone physically lifted me up and moved me away so they could get in, laughing at me the entire time I struggled). And yes, I may have forgotten Zyrlen's room number and gotten yelled at by an irate black woman at two in the morning (MMMMMMHHHHHM, I BET YOU IS LOST. BOY GET OUTTA HERE BEFORE I CALL THE FRONT DESK), but in the end I found his sanctuary and managed to get to sleep. All in all a successful meet, except none of us (save maybe Revan) got pissed out of our minds.
Get randomly awoken really early by a maid looking to clean up the room. She promptly retreated after I sleepily mumbled some stuff at her.
Get up around 10 or so, shower and get dressed, with Revan still in bed the layabout.
Run down to the CVS near the hotel, because their free breakfast ends at 10 for some reason. Was really looking forward to reenacting this. I stupidly forgot my discount card and had to return to the hotel for it.
Card now in hand, ran back to buy 2 muffins, 1 Arizona Green Tea, and a bottle of water for my breakfast, and 1 muffin for Revan. I also picked up some ice cream that was on sale. More on that later.
After rolling through the few available channels, we went down to meet Sior outside the hotel. We then made our way to the park near the metro stops, said park featured in the last DC meet, where Sior kept leaving people behind in his effort to get to the karaoke bar.
After a bit of waiting, we were joined up by Kelly and Xena, followed soon after by people from the zoo group.
Our now 11? strong group made way to a place around the corner, named Golden Brown Delicious. I felt at home in a way. After some conversation, the previous 5 person group of Kelly, Xena, Sior, Revan and I decided we were not fans and went up to a place we passed by earlier called Front Page.
After for some reason deciding to follow Revans lead, forcing us to aimlessly wander about, we were properly seated, very uncomfortably. Sior nearly fell out of the window behind him, due to a bit of a drop behind him, paired with inadequate space.
After some very good food and drink, we regrouped with the zoo group at Golden Brown Delicious, where we first crowded the entrance, then the sidewalk, before Arimisia, Iosen, shrub, Tremula, Zyrlen and Orventa had to leave us, leaving Iorwen no choice but to join our group of awesome, and Revan.
With our group empowered, we decided to go visit the Air and Space museum. Along the way there, Drocilla and Yomoigu decided they would join us, but not before they visited the Botanical Gardens. We were going to meet them, but turns out they had time-skipped to the Air and Space, forcing us to turn around and walk back the way we came, the bastards.
While I had visited the Air and Space museum before, I had not gotten to see Darth Vader. Unfortunately, I learned that he had never been there in the first place. I cried a lot on the inside.
Kelly, Xena and Iorwen briefly inhaled dust from the museum fountains, before we made our way to the food court. My water bottle and I were barred entry, so I waited outside for them, and they thought they briefly lost me.
We wandered some more around the museum, before deciding to head once more to the White House, this time the correct side. Xena and Kelly were not disappointed this time.
After some time hanging around outside the White House, we decided to head to dinner, ending up at a place called Fat Pete's, where I think everyone but Drocilla had beef. She had chicken.
After more good food, we then proceeded to head out, with Drocilla and Yomoigu parting ways with our group.
Our now diminished group then made way by train to Kellys car, where we then drove to her place to party.
Along the way, Revan got some car to car boob action with some lady as we blasted the Thong Song at her. Before we arrived at Kellys domicile, we stopped at Sweet Frog, where they were just closing up. Belligerent white man face saved the day though and got us in.
After paying for our various frozen yogurt, we went back to Kelly's and played some Smash Brothers, Mario Kart on Wii and foosball. Revan can go jump in a volcano for choosing Rainbow Road.
After several rounds of Kelly vs Revan in Mario Kart, me nearly falling asleep on Kellys floor and other shenanigans, Kelly drove us back to our hotel, where we promptly fell asleep, needing some sleep for the morning drive back up to Philly.
I think I could watch that gif all day. I'd make a better and longer one if I had access to all the pictures. You'd look way more awesome in that one. Maybe.
Seems we both overlooked a few things, but I will avoid bringing up any highlights from Monday until I write my summary. I completely forgot to mention the small bit of hilarity of Revan trying to go down the wrong escalator, along with some other stuff I might have forgotten.
@Iosen keeps reminding me of my small temper tantrum in the car on the way to laser tag, but I'm really not the angry person he makes me out to be, promise.
Ok, Monday summary before I need to start getting ready for work.
Monday:
Wake up at like 6 in the morning so we could ride up to Philly with Yomo and Drocilla. Having taken the bed, while Revan couched it up, I did not want to get up. That thing was pretty comfy.
Remember that ice cream I mentioned? I had originally planned on eating it after the days fun and we got back to the hotel, but partying at Kellys along with a lot of good food meant I was not up to the task once we got back. So, I decided to bring it along, hopefully locating a spoon to eat it with.
We stopped by the CVS to get some water, and then made our way to the metro stop to meet up with Drocilla and Yomo.
While we waited, I ended up having to drink some of the melted ice cream and unfortunately trash the rest. There was also a car crash close by, but don't believe anyone was majorly hurt.
After about an hour or so of waiting, they showed up and we piled in, ready for a long drive.
We drove for a while listening to the regular radio, until Yomo did something that raised his cool factor in my eyes: putting on a local radio show that I love listening to. Even cooler/weirder was the fact he did it seconds after I was thinking of the show.
After a bit of more driving and listening, we stopped at a rest stop, they for some coffee mainly, me to stretch my legs. After finding the vending machines, Drocilla used a large amount of her change in the hopes of getting Yomo some coffee. Turns out the machine was broken? and or you needed to bring your own cups, and free, so change was wasted in a way. I don't know full details for that, I was busy balking at the stupid prices the other vending machines had.
With the quest for coffee delayed, we hopped back into the Yomobile and drove some more, until we found a better rest stop, with a Dunkin Donuts and some other places.
Revan bought a box of munchkins for the group, they got Drocillas name wrong on her order, some old lady gave me the stink eye when I went back to get napkins, and Revan was obsessed with what Drocilla had in her trunklittle bag.
Food now within our bellies, we set out once more on the road, with Yomo, Drocilla and loud Revan sang a bunch while I nodded off every now and then.
Along the way, improper placement of the munchkin box caused them to fall out onto the floor of the Yomobile. Let's just say, that I see why Drocilla is the way she is.
We rode back into the city, found a parking structure to use across the street from Reading Terminal Market. We crossed over to said market and walked around there for a while.
In a bout of insanity, they decided that I should lead the group to City Hall and after a bit more walking we set out.
Even before we had gotten to City Hall, Yomo, like a good grandson, called Nana Yoyo to keep a watch for us on the Art Museum steps later in the day.
We walked through City Hall, with Drocilla took a bunch of pictures, then deciding to visit Love Park. In the park, we took some more pictures and for the second time, I showed Drocilla my cities fountains, but thankfully this time I knew who she really was.
We stopped and sat by the fountain for a while, until the water spray got a bit too much.
As we made our way towards the Art Museum, we stopped by The Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul(take that Drocilla), Logan Square, where I showed another fountain, and Central Library, though we did not enter.
Some more walking deposited us at the base of the Art Museum. Before Drocilla set forth on the run of the steps, she and Revan took some pictures with the Rocky statue nearby.
After a bit of stretching, Drocilla began her run up the steps, with Yomo and Revan keeping record of it along the way. As she topped the summit, she began to cheer and dance, and I took a few pictures, which comprise the gif I posted earlier.
After the run, we decided to chill by another fountain, at a count of 6 fountains now at this point in the journey, with the 3 across the street from the Art Museum and the Love, Logan and Art fountains.
After a bit of time spent near the Art Museum steps, Nana Yoyo invited us up for drinks and such. We gladly accepted, while waiting for Dynami. He had for some reason placed trust in Septa, making me doubt the veracity of his claim to actually live in the city.
We spent about an hour or so talking to Yomos grandmother, taking in an awesome view of the city from her balcony, admiring her art, eating ice cream, Drocilla being tempted by candy, Revan trying to make her hit him, her regaling us with childhood stories and pictures of Yomo and being an all around awesome lady. She began to genuflect as Yomo said when he began his attempt to explain Lusternia to her. She also gave an open offer to hang out with her whenever, which I do want to take up, because she has an awesome view of the city and the area where they do the 4th of July fireworks.
After finally getting the dreaded message that Dynami had arrived, we made our way down, but not before Drocilla almost got off on the wrong floor.
We met up with Dynami and made our way back south towards City Hall and the Liberty Bell, which was farther south. I delegated leading duty to Dynami for this leg of the journey.
We visited the Liberty Bell, skipping over all the other displays, where Drocilla took a few pictures, then we left.
Dynami had us going in the wrong direction, making me regret this delegation, before I saved the day and had us going in the correct direction.
We were originally going to make Drocilla have cheesesteaks, but ended up on settling for Chinese. Yomos father? recommended a place and we made our way there. While the soup I had did not agree with me, the rice was good, and the smoothies they make are delicious.
After eating, we unfortunately had to first part ways with Dynami, then Drocilla and Revan had to get to their bus to New York. Along the way to 30th Street Station, I got us kinda turned around, because I'm not used to navigating the streets by car, then Drocilla got us way off track when she input 30th Street and not 30th Street Station into the gps. We ended up near the zoo, before things were corrected.
I went and waited for a bus home, while Drocilla and Revan went to board theirs. Yomo drove off into the sunset with intent to crash at his parents place before heading home to DC I presume.
I had a lot of fun and would love to do it all over, just not too soon. I know I overlooked a lot of funny/awesome/crazy things that happened, and may add in anything I can remember. While much love to Kelly and Xena and everyone else I hung out with in DC, Monday was my favorite, because I got to show off a lot of the good parts of my city. Hopefully Drocilla, Yomo, and whoever else took pictures post them soon. I plan on dumping a number of pictures I took to an album soon. I didn't take as many as the last DC meet though. As I've said before, anyone passing through Philly or lives in the area, shoot me a message and I'd love to hang out and show you around. I will say, that while I hated the DC Metro system before, it has grown on me and I really wish Septa would get with the times.
Sadly, things are even crummy for we who live in the southern center (York) are of the state. I'm darn glad you could make the rounds and hope I can make the meet next time.
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Ixion tells you, "// I don't think anyone else had a clue, amazing form."
Ixion tells you, "// I don't think anyone else had a clue, amazing form."
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Saturday:
Sunday: will get to tomorrow
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Unless I read that wrong.. Did you just call the Reflecting Pool the pond thingy outside the memorial? >.>
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So where are all the West Coast players?
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Instead, the helpful front desk guy said the hotel would shuttle us to the metro and there was a train instead that would only take 45 minutes to an hour. So we got to enjoy a train ride instead! We got to the station and there were these evil machines.. first having to go through all this alien paperwork of "is it peek hour" "is there more than one passenger" then a whole lot of other stuff I dunno. The nifty nearby cop seemed to know what he was doing. Unfortunately, he had to do it like three of four times for us >.> darn machine did not like making change of anything over like twenty five cents and if you put anything higher it reset.
That aside, we got to the zoo, met up with our group, went to a cafe and ate. Had a horrible unfortunate luck of getting "ketchup" for the french fries that was in actuality barbeque sauce. Made some face, complained and went on about eating my chicken at the very least. Then we left with plenty of time to make it on time to Nando's. But atlas.. the zoo would not have it, we had to walk back up the hill the way we came instead of looping around and we decided to go look at the big cats and then to seals. By the time we left the zoo we should have been at Nando's.
We hopped on another train after a few went to Starbucks. We finally arrived at Nando's and good times ensued for the rest of the night.
When we parted ways, Jinx, Tremula, Zyrlen, Tyrad, and myself went to the Holiday Inn where we were all staying where a few amusing events took place. First being one Tremula posted above, if you did not get - Pectus could not make the reservation to the mansion for us so he took our tablet and made the reservation himself under the name Professor Alex Dawneye. Because a professor can get in anywhere. At the door I do believe they asked him what he was a professor in. Next year if I have my viking costume done I am sooo gonna wear it and make the reservation under the Supreme Commander and see how that goes.
Next, we found out the next morning and Tremula could probably tell this better than me but, he stayed with Zyrlen since there was an open bed. He went down to the lobby area because there were computers down there and was checking the forums and when he went back up to go to bed, he had the moment of - could not remember room number. So he knocked on a door. Was not the right room and god a very angry black lady at like 2 am. After he managed to get away from her he went down to the front desk (instead of coming to our room which he did remember). Dressed in his jammies with his bag, he asks the guy at the front desk for Zyrlen's room number with only a first name. Now, we have to pause and picture this scene for a moment. Then in the next thought that the front desk guy actually gave him the room number.
Good times, good times.
Ixion tells you, "// I don't think anyone else had a clue, amazing form."
Sunday:
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The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
*Snigger, gigglesnort, cackle*
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
Signature!
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Ixion tells you, "// I don't think anyone else had a clue, amazing form."
Monday:
I had a lot of fun and would love to do it all over, just not too soon. I know I overlooked a lot of funny/awesome/crazy things that happened, and may add in anything I can remember. While much love to Kelly and Xena and everyone else I hung out with in DC, Monday was my favorite, because I got to show off a lot of the good parts of my city. Hopefully Drocilla, Yomo, and whoever else took pictures post them soon. I plan on dumping a number of pictures I took to an album soon. I didn't take as many as the last DC meet though. As I've said before, anyone passing through Philly or lives in the area, shoot me a message and I'd love to hang out and show you around. I will say, that while I hated the DC Metro system before, it has grown on me and I really wish Septa would get with the times.
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Ixion tells you, "// I don't think anyone else had a clue, amazing form."
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