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A good meal for a new day (open)
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Post by TheFatMan on Mar 28, 2016 0:55:44 GMT
Another day, another meal, another news reporter not making a single point, it’s always the same. At least the food is good.
Mathew downed his croquettes with a hearty vigor, leaning back in his overstuffed seat to savor the meal. It’s not like much was happening today besides a few classes, and having some non cafeteria food is always nice. This place has always been one of Mathew’s favorites, a small little family restaurant hidden behind some back streets. It’s not a large fancy place but its cheap and the family who runs it knows how to make good food and is always nice to talk to. It’s sort of a funny story about how he found this place. It was actually the day he arrived, and knowing him his first stop was food.
So, there he was, a fat bearded man speaking rough Japanese carrying around two giant suitcases asking where he could get some food in the middle of the night. Through dumb luck he ended up running on the owner of the place, the father, who was coming back from buying the next day’s ingredients. The man told Mathew to follow him and sat him down for a meal when they got to the restaurant. While the man was cooking the two of them started talking when the man took particular notice of Mathew’s offhanded comment about how cliché the situation was. With his own offhanded comment the two of them started a long conversation about story structure which led to a quick friendship and a new regular at the small shop.
But that was then and this is now, except now isn’t nearly as interesting because it isn’t a story. It’s just Mathew eating at a small family restaurant thinking about how to spend his day.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Mar 30, 2016 4:50:17 GMT
The brothers had a big day ahead of them. Wake up early, get their butts in gear, and after some food get moving to the Digital World. Today they were going to follow in Alicia's example and look for upgraded spirits of their own, no longer content with the Veemon and Impmon forms they currently found themselves stuck with. Of course, big adventures meant big appetites, and big appetites meant loading up on food as much as possible. Who knew what they'd be able to find in the Digital World for food? Especially when they were going some place as ominously titled as the Dark Area. Frankly, the nerves were making it a little hard for Isaac to focus on eating.
Not Elliot, though. The smaller of the duo was packing away food like a champ, eating with vigor that frankly left Isaac stunned. "It's been years and I'm still floored by how fast you can do that," Isaac remarked, watching as his brother gently placed his chopsticks next to an emptied plate. "How'd you even pick up on using those so fast?"
Elliot couldn't help but grin widely in response. "I learn quick when I'm hungry, I guess," he said, a strange mix of pride and sheepishness in his voice. "If you're not gonna eat yours, can I have some of it? It smells amazing!"
"Hey, come on. I haven't even had a shot yet," Isaac said, laughing a bit. "Not all of us are stomachs with legs."
"Mom just says I'm a growing boy!" Elliot protested.
"Could've fooled me. Pretty sure you're some kind of walking stick figure." Elliot was pretty weedy still, even with how much he could eat on any given day. Meanwhile, Isaac already found himself having to watch himself to avoid getting a bit in the middle. Just another gift dad gave to one son but not the other, wasn't it? Isaac sighed, trying to shake the irritability that was now haunting him in here of all places. Damnit, wasn't half of the point of this vacation to forget that guy?
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Post by TheFatMan on Mar 30, 2016 6:50:32 GMT
Mathew's attention was brought to the conversation between the two boys. He didn't want to be rude or seem like some sort of creep for starting weird conversations with younger kids, so he took the next best option: he waited and listened. Now, one might call him a creep for doing just that but don't most people do the same thing when they are eating dinner at home with their family and they start a conversation? It's not like he was staring or anything, just listening to their conversation.
As they mentioned food Mathew became even more interested, and even took it as a challenge when he heard one of them commenting on how the other ate so much food. Wait, weren't the two of them skinny? Who do they think they are, getting to eat what they want in massive quantities without getting fat. Life isn't a shounen anime, you can't just eat everything and stay the same.
"Hey, fat man, check this out." The chef and owner called from beyond the counter using his nickname for Mathew, not that Mathew minded the name any, he was sort of fat. Anyway, the sound got Mathew's attention as the chef produced an almost comically large egg from behind the counter. "Found this at the store, the produce guy didn't know what to make it so he gave it to me on the house. Want to see what happens when I crack it open?"
"Look at my face." Mathew stared at the chef who returned his gaze. "Do you think this is a face who doesn't want to see what comes out of a monster egg? I mean look at it, it has gears on the side of it, who doesn't want to know what's in it?"
Taking a look around Mathew notes that there isn't any in the restaurant besides him, the kids, and the chef.
"Well, let me get a pan so we can crack this thing open." The chef notes, diving behind the counter to retrieve a pan.
"Hey, wait a minute old man." Mathew leans back in his chair and politely looks at the two other patrons in the shop. "Hey, me and the chef have some sort of monster egg, you two want to see what's inside?"
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Mar 30, 2016 15:31:23 GMT
The brothers were a little confused why they were being called over by a random stranger. Immediately, Isaac bristled, as if ready to find some way to disengage the duo from this situation. However, he stopped himself when he realized what the two were saying. Monster egg? No, it couldn't be. They had to be talking about an ostrich egg or something, right? The alternative was impossible. Why would one be here of all places? The boy figured it'd just be some restaurant challenge he could safely discount, only to notice his brother looking at the egg, shocked and confused. It seemed like this would be exactly what the two thought it was.
"They can't," Isaac whispered to his brother.
"We have to do something," Elliot whispered back. "What if they hurt it?"
"Look, it'll be fine. We just gotta-"
"And it's not like we can tell them, either."
"Elliot, the freaking thing has gears on it, Isaac added, a little exasperated. "It isn't gonna be fooling anyone if we say it's a normal egg. Besides, if it hatches, we won't exactly be able to keep the secret."
Elliot wasn't sure what to say. His brother was right. At the same time, though, they could get in a lot of trouble if this ended up hitting national news. Especially if everyone else found out about their spirit transformations. The last thing they wanted was to be taken to some kind of secret facility and dissected or anything like that. Still, if they didn't act, some innocent Digimon would get clobbered before even being born. How could they even let that fall on their consciences.
"I-I do not know," Elliot stammered in response to the man, their little brother-to-brother meeting over now. Darnit, his Japanese was bad enough without nerves weighing him down! "It looks a little too suspicious to hit a with frying pan. What if it's just a really weird alarm clock?" he suggested. A lame excuse, but what was he supposed to say?
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Post by TheFatMan on Mar 30, 2016 21:31:19 GMT
"An alarm clock?" The chef mused, coming back from behind the counter with a new pan in hand. Setting the pan down over a burning flame he turns the egg over in his hands and knocks on it a few times. "It doesn't sounds like metal or plastic, but it does sounds like something is in there. It's not like I had to pay for it anyway, so it doesn't matter if I break it."
Taking the egg in hand over the pan the chef prepares to crack it, only to be stopped by Mathew.
"Hey, mind if I do the honors?" Mathew spoke, climbing around the counter and grabbing the egg from the chef.
"Sure kid, though don't come crying to me if it explodes on you." The chef jokes, taking a few steps back.
"How would you like your egg? Over easy or sunny side up." Mathew spoke, making a small joke to himself as he raised the egg end brought it down to the edge of the pan. With a sharp crack the egg broke, but instead of merely coming apart the egg shell dissolved in Mathew's hands, depositing a gear into the pan. With a moment of silence Mathew and the chef stared at the gear and if on que an eye opener in the center of the gear. With a glance at each other then back at the egg Mathew and the chef started screeching. Taking the handle of the pan in one hand Mathew tossed the gear aside, it bouncing against the wall and landing in the sink.
"What did you find old man!" Mathew exaggerated, grabbing the chef's shoulders and shaking him a bit.
"Life, apparently." The chef mused causing Mathew to stop his shaking and start chuckling.
"Yeah laugh it up, that hurt you know." Inturrupted a voice from the sink. From behind pots and pans climbed out the gear, though it had somehow grown arms and horns. The musical type of horns, not the biological type. "Thinking you can throw be around, you wanna fight me."
"Not really, no" Mathew stated blankly to the talking machine.
"Oh, well, I found this next to me, I think it's your since you hatched me." The gear spoke, clearly disappointed as he produced a small device from the sink and tossed over to Mathew who caught it.
Remembering the other two people in the room Mathew turned around, clearly confused, and shrugged. "Well, if anything that was interesting,"
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Mar 31, 2016 1:34:33 GMT
Isaac cringed as egg met frying pan, and Elliot averted his eyes. He couldn't even bear to watch what was about to happen. Thankfully, though, it seemed the egg was remarkably unharmed. Instead of cracking into a million pieces, it softly dissolved into a strange, gear-like creature. Isaac sighed in relief and directed his brother to start paying attention again, glad that life won this day instead of death. They wouldn't have to worry about some poor, bouncing heap of data getting scrambled like an omelette.
Instead, it was thrown into a wall, promptly coming back bigger, angrier, and demanding a fight. What an interesting way for a human and a partner to meet, it seemed. The two weren't sure if it was the chef's, the other guy's, or if somebody had gone to the bathroom and missed the hatching of their own bonded partner. Of course, judging by the Digivice that the machine hurled at the other guy present, it seemed like he was the partner of choice. And what a great way for them to have their first meeting, huh?
"Well, congratulations! You've got a partner now," Elliot said.
"Probably best to apologize for trying to scramble him, eh?" Isaac added.
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Post by TheFatMan on Mar 31, 2016 1:52:07 GMT
"What do you mean by partner?" Mathew turned to the two boys, questioningly looking them up and down.
"Life partner, maybe." The chef mused prompting a glare from Mathew
"Yeah, I'd like to know that too." The gear added, pulling himself onto the counter.
"Wait a minute." Mathew interrupted, focusing his glare on the metal being before him. "How did you get over here from the sink?"
The deadpan style of the question prompted a laugh from the chef as the gear takes a look down at it's hands. "You know what? I honestly don't know."
"That's a problem for another day, because I think we just discovered artificial life." Mathew mentioned, addressing the elephant in the room. "Now, how should we unveil this to the public? Keeping it a secret wouldn't be helpful to anyone at this point."
"Do I have a say in this?" The gear spoke up, balancing on one hand to raise the other into the air.
"It depends on how stupid of an idea you have." Mathew looked down his nose at the machine.
With a grunt the machine replied. "I say we start a robot fighting tournament and enter me in it so I can punch things."
Picking up the machine Mathew looks him over. "As amusing as that would be, I don't think so. You would get crushed in the first round. Have you even seen some of the robots people make for those things? It's legitimately scary what they can do."
"Besides, I don't think there are enough robotics people around here to make something like that." The chef added.
"I could always ask some of my classmates to join in if we need competitors." Mathew mused, turning to the kids. "What do you two think we should do?"
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Mar 31, 2016 5:03:12 GMT
"Partner," Elliot said again, trying his best to explain when frankly he didn't know what was going on. All he had was a fancy rock, that changed how he looked when he pulled it out of his Digivice. Rocks didn't need anything explained to them. They were rocks! "You know, have fun together. Learn and grow with each other. Protect each other. Partners!" He wasn't very good at it. Maybe if he knew, like, more than two people in the Digital World that had partners it'd be easier to explain. Fortunately, the conversation was going way too fast for his awkward, incomplete attempts to be focused on too much. Instead, the conversation went towards breaking the secret out to the public. Uh-oh.
"That might not be the best idea," Isaac warned, kicking himself the whole time. Why did they have to be having this conversation? They were just a bunch of stupid teenagers! Wasn't there some kind of organization that could be handling this kind of thing instead? Of course, having a public Digimon bureau would kill the point of keeping it secret anyway. Bah, Isaac's head hurt. "People might not react well to it all. Especially the more dangerous ones," he warned. "But hey! If you're looking for things to punch, trust me, they aren't gonna be in short supply. My brother and I punched our way out of a battlefield, a train robbery, a birthday party-"
"We didn't fight out way out of that one, Isaac." Elliot interjected.
"And thank goodness for that. Never thought a bunch of trains having a party could be so destructive," Isaac mumbled in response. "Look, point is, where this guy's from, there's gonna be a lot of adventure."
"So you guys should take the chance to get to know each other! Make friends." Yesterday, the brothers met a guy who had spent nearly a year inside the Digital World. These two were going to be in it for the long haul, so they might as well try and get off on a good foot.
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Post by TheFatMan on Mar 31, 2016 11:17:29 GMT
Mathew starts staring directly at the eldest of the two boys with as confused as an expression as he can muster. "What are you two even talking about? What do you mean more dangerous ones? Have you met any before? Why are you acting like the prospect of artificial life is like getting a new pet?"
"Hey boss, let them speak, I want to hear more about punching stuff." The gear inturrupted, balancing on the counter and crossing his short arms.
"Of all things, you had to be the punch happy kind of robot." Mathew sighed. "Why is my life suddenly an anime? a very obscure and often forgotten kind of anime which you one really find by chance."
"Well, at least it got more interesting." The chef noted.
"Yeah, but now I'm going to most likely be put with a cast of tropes made into character like these two shounen protagonists in front of us." Mathew clearly motions to the boys. "And on top of that I'm stuck with the stupid punch happy brawler as a partner."
The gear casts a death stare at Mathew. "I'm not stupid!"
"Then how many cannons are used in the 1812 overture?" Mathew smuggled at his obscure question.
"17 are indicated in the score." The gear promptly answers causing Mathew to lose his composure for a moment.
"A knowledge of the obscure and unique?" Mathew pondered. "Things just got interesting."
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Mar 31, 2016 16:50:50 GMT
Isaac sighed. This was gonna be way more work than he had imagined. Now he was regretting even speaking up the matter, because there was no way some teenager on vacation was going to be able to explain every nook and cranny of the Digital World. He'd only been there for 5 days! This was nonsense! Still, better this guy gets an explanation than suddenly taking the wrong train and getting spirited away to a deadly game of Digi-Tag or something. Their first day in the Digital World was, frankly, a nightmare that they wouldn't have risked on anybody else.
"Okay, hold on. Let me try to explain," Isaac said, dipping into English if only so he could explain better. He braced himself for the upcoming crappiness of his explanation, and hoped it wouldn't be too much trouble for the new guy. "Alright. What you've got here isn't artificial life. It's alien life. I think? Interdimensional, maybe? Look, regardless, he's not from around here. Now, you've got our world and you've got his world. His world's a lot like ours, but it's got way more explosions and swords. We can show you the entrance later, but it's top secret, okay? We're even only saying this much now so you don't get hurt or anything."
Elliot, on the other hand, politely tried to stay in Japanese. "Apologies. Our Japanese is not the best," he said, not wanting the cook to feel left out. "We have met a lot! Some nice. Some not so nice. And they are bigger and stronger than us, so it can be difficult to deal with them when they mean bad. And they are not really pets. After all, they can talk and live pretty independently. Think of it like housing a foreign exchange student, and meeting a new best friend!" That was an analogy that worked! Elliot and Isaac were basically their mom's friend's Digimon partners.
"It gets very dangerous where he is from, though. So it is very important that you two can rely on each other," he warned. In a way, missing that bond was a big failing of being a spirit user. He was lucky enough to have Isaac, and Alicia and Kouhei kept talking to people that didn't seem to be there, but what about other spirit users? How did they cope with the stress of their journey? Suddenly Elliot was very thankful he hadn't been separated from his brother for extended periods of time.
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Post by TheFatMan on Mar 31, 2016 18:28:44 GMT
"But there is still something troubling me with your explanation," Mathew pondered. "How do you two know all of this? Besides the fact you look much calmer than you should given the situation, you seem to know allot about what you claim should be a secret. If it should be a secret then why? What would it help by keeping it a secret? And no answering people aren't ready to know about it, that's a cliche excuse and if people like you and me can handle it what's to say the rest of the world can't?"
"Maybe they need some sense beaten into them." The gear mused, waddling towards the two boys. "I'd gladly get that job done."
"Oh no you don't." Mathew responded, grabbing the gear before he could get far. "What do I call you anyway? I suppose I can't just call you machine or gear."
"It's not my job to name myself." The machine retorted, trying to pull himself free of Mathew's grasp.
"Fine then, I'll call you John." Mathew decided.
"But that's boring." John complained. "Why not ACDC, Metalica, or maybe daft punk?"
"Interesting selection, but no, you're John from now on." Mathew said, idly turning the metal John around in his hands, one again returning his attention to the boys. "Still, what are these dangers you speak of. It sounds as if you are speaking of monsters, though I guess that's a valid explanation given the fact that John exists. Oh, and if you know so much where are your partners?"
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Mar 31, 2016 19:02:31 GMT
They were teenagers, not foreign policy experts! How the hell were they supposed to give answers here? More than anything Isaac wished he could just phone up a friend. Maybe they'd know what to say better than he did. Instead, he was the one left speaking out, with no clue what he could even say or do. Certainly this wouldn't be any pressure!
"Probably because we're just a bunch of stupid kids who aren't at risk of plunging everyone into World War Robot Dinosaur," Isaac responded. "I'm not saying the world's not ready, but a small bunch of kids is gonna make way less waves than opening up UN forums for the whole thing." Even trying to imagine the politics, paperwork, and red tape needed was making the poor boy's head spin. How would traveling between worlds even be handled? Would they need passports? Would you need to license Digivolving, even if it's part of their natural growth, just because natural Digimon growth tended to involve sprouting a machine gun out of every limb? What the heck would even happen to Spirit Users? And that was assuming the globe decided accepting Digimon was the right choice of action, instead of blocking off the worlds and dissecting them all for study.
"Well, the threats come in all shapes and sizes. There was this angry living tank guy, and this gang of goblin bullies, and that one professor and his robot suit. You'd have to see them to believe them, really," Elliot explained, trying to recount his adventures. Of course, then came the next question, majorly taking him off guard.
"We're, uh, we're an interesting case," Elliot said, awkwardly dancing around the question in hopes he'd never have to transform in public.
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Post by TheFatMan on Mar 31, 2016 22:20:53 GMT
"You're kidding, right?" Mathew asked, dropping John on the counting, rolling and cursing. "You think kids are harmless? All it would take would be for one of them to reach puberty and get upset before a city no longer exists if the power of these creatures is anywhere near what you described. A single moody teen could take out a country and you think it should be kept a secret? How stupid do you have to be to not realize that?"
"Calm down boss, won't do much work worrying about problems you can't punch." John stepped in.
"Yeah, I guess. Thanks." Mathew sighed. "Well, if I'm not gonna worry about it I'm gonna do something about it."
With a nifty but mostly just weird flourish Mathew sweeps up John and climbs over the counter, stuffing him in his bag and grabbing the device from before. Turning over the device he starts listing different tools and other technobabble as he pulls out a wallet and throws it at the chef. "Pay for me then meet me at the lab, you two kids: follow me, we are going to try to make history"
"What do you mean by that?" John questioningly ponders, poking himself out of the bag.
"We are going to see what makes you function, I am a robotics student after all, and I do think my class would love to see what makes you work as well. The more minds trying to figure out how something works, the more chances for someone to make a correct assumption." Mathew explained, a devilish grin crossing his face and with that statement Mathew leaves, John in tow and hopefully with the two boys and the chef following soon after.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Mar 31, 2016 22:36:31 GMT
Thankfully, it seemed both conversation topics were dropped. Isaac was spared of being dropped into the deep end of political arguments, and Elliot didn't have to turn into a dragon muppet. Everyone won tonight! Except maybe poor John, who judging by what this kid was saying was about to be autopsied. Good thing he was a robot, at least. The two worriedly followed behind, hoping that at least if worst came to worst they'd be able to stop anything truly stupid and dangerous from happening. And hey, on the bright side they'd be able to see a robotics lab. That would be pretty cool, right?
Still, he did have a point. So far every human they saw with a Digimon was just like them; either trying to get by, or trying to make a positive difference in the world. Whether with partners or with spirits, they all seemed to have nothing more than the best of intentions. Well, except Kouhei. But even he turned a bit nicer after the whole trying to stab the duo part ended. What if there was somebody who genuinely meant harm, either out of lashed-out emotion or malice as black as pitch. With the kind of power he'd be armed with, there'd be no stopping him by an conventional force on Earth. Only other tamers would be able to step up to the plate and try helping, and was that really the best course of action?
Then again, it seemed everyone involved was chosen, not found at random chance. Maybe there was some big, benevolent force at work picking out only the most worthy. An appealing thought, but one just as likely to be wrong as it was right.
Immediately, Isaac stopped this train of thought. This was making his head hurt. Instead he'd just follow Elliot, who was following the stranger, who was following a train of thought Isaac just couldn't predict the direction of.
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Post by TheFatMan on Apr 12, 2016 15:35:29 GMT
“Don’t you have anything to listen to?” John mentioned, pulling himself out of Mathew’s bag and climbing onto his heavy partner’s shoulder. “If I’m not gonna maim something I want something to listen to.”
Grabbing the mechanical John from his soldier, Mathew stuffs him back in his bag. “I can’t let you do that John. I need to keep you hidden until we can release your existence peacefully to the public. To be honest, the public is stupid and would most likely develop rumors about you and whatever else we find. While not a bad thing in and of it self, the rumors would be taken as truth and considering how fast the internet moves the entire world would think you’re some sort of secret military weapon before we have time to explain you. No, our best solution would be to research you as much as we can then go through the proper channels to make sure the government knows what you are and then try working with the to safely release you to the public.”
“But can I punch things really hard, preferably in their face?” John questioned, slightly muffled by the walls of the backpack.
“If we need to do combat trials, yes.” Mathew reluctantly concluded, followed by a muffled rendition of don’t stop me now. Letting him have his fun Mathew slows down a bit in order to let the three people following him catch up long enough for him to get his wallet back from the chef.
With practiced ease Mathew navigates the mess of a city to make it to the school, dodging between side streets and partially hidden roads to make it there faster, Even with his knowledge of the path it takes a while to make it to the college which gives Mathew the time required to test out John’s library of music, playing songs from hotel California to the more obscure shut up and explode.
Upon arriving at the large school Mathew goes through the process of getting the three people with him allowed into the building before leading them to the robotics lab. While not the biggest room in the building it was definitely one of the loudest, second only to the music department because few things can even get louder than ten trumpets playing at the same time in an enclosed room. Across all walls there are tons of different tools and machines of unidentified purpose. Using them are just a few students tinkering with their personal projects as class isn’t planned to start for a while. Interrupting their work Mathew calls them all over, a soft silence covering the room interrupted by whispers of questions and their quiet replies as everyone tries to figure out why they were called together; All of which stop when John is taken out of Mathew’s backpack and placed on the table.
“Hey there, do I get to punch something now?” John excitedly asked the group of stunned students earning him a swift smack on the head (gear?) from Mathew before he goes into further depth about the situation. After a few minutes of explanation and some excited looks from the students they split off into groups to gather the tools required to study John.
Satisfied with himself Mathew returns to the boys which he had left behind in his explanation and while watching the groups of students work starts back up the conversation between them.
“How do you know so much about all of this, I don’t see you carrying around an annoying little robot and you seem to have met others. And I did catch you trying to dance around the subject; I can sort of tell when someone is trying to hide something. Well, not really, you were just being super obvious about it.” Mathew shrugged; putting the two boys in the spotlight as the chef merely looks around clueless as to what is actually happening. “And don’t try to just lead me around without giving me an answer, I’m not a news reporter and you aren’t a politician. And let me tell you: I don’t have the patience to deal with people who refuse to answer a question.”
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