Chp 38 – People are Exhausting
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[AN: in my attempt at replicating Claudine's Autism, understand that I probably am making and probably will make mistakes. I know very few people personally with Autism of any level and I do not completely understand it myself (does anyone really with mental illnesses), but I will do my best to stay away from stereotypes. That said, I'll do my best and if you have any constructive criticism to offer, please give it to me. Multi-personality disorders and bipolarism is about all I know how to do well. If any of this offends you, I'm sorry.]


Chapter 38 - People are Exhausting


Xavier Mansion Underground Hanger

The trip back to the mansion was silent save for Henry's occasional shouts of joy. Everyone else decided it was best to sleep, or drink in Logan's case. I'm glad the girls were able to sleep with what they've been through, but I couldn't. I've always known I could kill. I spent my developing years in my old world praying for somebody to walk up to me on the street and fight me. But I held that anger, that undirected rage in, I held so many emotions in that I have no idea where they came from, and I pursued intellectual things. I indulged in creative mediums so my fantasies never evolved into action. But despite all that emotion, I never really acted on it, I refused to allow myself to. That day I slaughtered those assasins back in my old world, that...that wasn't me. It was my hands, my body that did it, but it wasn't me. That day, I just snapped, woke up the next morning in a hospital, my teeth were stained in blood that wasn't mine. When watching the recording, I didn't see me, I saw a rabid animal that fought with instinct, recklessness, and things he's seen from movies. But I wasn't surprised, not too much. I've created personalities before, whether that's for A.I.s or for myself, to do things I otherwise could not. But today's killing wasn't someone else, it was me. And probably the only reason I was able to do it as me was because I was prepared for it, or the idea of it. I just expected, no hoped, that I would feel like how everyone in the movies or comics does after the first kill. To be broken and crying, or to be stunned and overwhelmed. Worst case scenario, I would enjoy it. But all I feel is apathy. Apathy to his death and the death I've damned Zebra Daddy to. Fuck Zebra Daddy. His fucking dumb ass name ruined my thought process. You know what? I may not care that I killed those two fuckers, but I'm glad they're dead or dying. 

"Bub—" Logan says to me.

"Huh?" I respond.

"Are you going to help me bring the girls upstairs?"

"Yeah sure." I answer, getting up out of my seat.

Laura and her mom, Sarah are standing up, albeit very wobbly while the other 3 sisters can certainly move but not well. Those drugs must have been hella strong. Henry and Rachael are already outside the plane while Mercury is still in her box unmoving

I take her out and put some clothes on her while Henry is looking away, the same set I put on the other girls, then put her back in the box and then I secure the box to my back with some straps. Then I pick up Bellona in one arm and Kimura in the other hand while Logan picks up Gabby and Zelda. 

I check to make sure that we have everything and head over to the elevator with everyone else. We ride up to the Mansion's first floor and the Professor is there waiting for us when the doors slide open, this time in his leg braces.

"Tyler, Logan, welcome back. I see you brought some guests as well. Everyone is currently asleep, but you're welcome to anything in the kitchen. You can pick any of the rooms in the right wing without nameplates on them. I know you're all tired so we can do introductions in the morning." The Professor says.

"Thank you professor, but could you check up on this one on my back? I'm concerned that she won't wake up. She was previously in a liquid mercury state but she solidified and didn't show any signs of waking up." I ask him, showing him Mercury on my back.

"I have difficulty penetrating the minds of morphers like her, but I can tell that her mind is resting and recovering. She'll wake up, but I can't say when. Have a good night" He consoles, before walking away. 

I lead everyone over to the kitchen and set Kimura and Belona down in chairs at the kitchen table, gesturing for Logan to do the same. Rachael ushers Henry to sit down with her. No everyone is staying down with hollow eyes trained down at the table except for Henry who's silently playing on his phone with his earbuds in.

"We can enjoy some calming chamomile tea before heading off to bed. Does anyone need muscle relaxers, pain meds, anything?" I ask, making mugs of hot tea.

"Can I have a beer?" Logan asks. I slide him a spruce beer, which isn't alcoholic, it's just like a carbonated Christmas tree.

"Contraceptives? Just in case." Sarah asks.

"Thanks for reminding me. Here, this is from Bellona, Zelda, and you. All of you can take a red pill every day for 3 days. If it starts bleeding from you know, then tell me. The blue pills are for Bellona and Zelda because of their stronger immune systems, take that with the red pill. Also, don't consume grapefruit or anything else on this list until 24 hours after you take the last pill." I hand them a few pill bottles and a list of foods and consumables that might interfere with the medication. I'm not really a Doctor, but I know enough about bio chem to prescribe a few things. And I've been learning more recently ever since I attained perfect memory. 

"Thanks." Sarah says.

"No problem." I start placing mugs down in front of everyone. The less mobile ones get warm tea with straws. Kimura is still bound and gagged.

"Alright Kimura. You can have a drink if you don't make too much noise. Everyone is sleeping. Also, no need to worry about having to escape. You'll get your punishment, but it won't be too bad." I tell her. Laura looks over but doesn't say anything, likely too tired to really care right now. I remove the bit in her mouth and she stares into my eyes with bubbling fury.

"I can't drink with my hands bound." Kimura nodes to her still bound wrists behind her back.

I leave her wrists as is and bring the mug to her mouth. I don't doubt that she will attack if given a reasonable chance. Everyone sips their drinks quietly and once done, they pass their mugs over to me so I can absorb them.

"Who wants to be in charge of Kimura tonight?" I ask as everyone is getting up from the table. All the girls can walk without help now.

"You. I'll gut her in my sleep if she's with me. The same goes for my sisters. She's done too much harm." Laura says. Alright then, I sling Kimura over my shoulder and take her to one of the empty rooms with a bed while everyone else does the same. 

Throwing Kimura on the bed, I throw a blanket on her and take mercury off my back, standing her box up. Then I morph into a black tee with sweatpants, comfort clothes.

"You can have the bed, I'm gonna stay up and do some work." I tell Kimura.

"...I need to use the bathroom." Kimura murmurs.

"How bad?"

"Like I've been holding it in for hours and you just have me some fucking shit tea bad."

"That tea was good and you know it. 1 or 2?"

"Jesus Christ, you're an asshole. Just let me go. I won't run away if that's what you're worried about." She seethes.

"Would you trust someone who beats up little girls for fun?" 

"...Go Fuck Yourself."

"Fuck me yourself, you coward." I jest, picking her up and taking her to the room's bathroom. I stand her up and start unzipping her leather combat suit from the front chest portion.

"You're really gonna strip a woman against her will?" She asks.

"You're not a woman, you're a bitch."

"I'll scream."

"And I'll stuff your throat with ice cream. Mint ice scream." I threaten, an edge on my voice.

She tries to headbut me, but I catch her on my shoulder and hold her head down while I continue unzipping her, now down to her stomach.

"Just...just let me go, I can't do anything against you." Her voice cracks a little bit.

"Like hell."

"Please~ *Hiccup* " She begs. I feel a small droplet of water hit my shoulder.

I stand her up off my shoulder and look into her eyes. Mascara drips from her eyes, though admittedly it's only a little bit. But I can feel her shivering slightly and a bit of cold sweat travelling down in between her breasts.

"Take care of your business and take a quick shower. You stink." I absorb the shackles on her wrists with my hand and the ones on her ankles with my feet so they drop to the ground. She covers her chest up with her arms reflexively. 

"I can hear everything so don't try anything dumb, the night's been shit enough." I set a new set of toiletries, towels, and black and white striped pajamas down onto the counter. Then I close the door and wait on the floor, listening to her every move.

I hear her take a few deep breaths, then her heartbeat calms a little and her leather suit drops to the ground followed by one other piece of small cloth. She slides the curtain and turns on the spout, running it until it gets hot and switches it to the shower head. She lifts the toilet seat and sits down. The sounds of her business thankfully get washed out by the shower. She flushes, and steps into the shower. I hear her washing her scalp. Then the rest of her body. The water makes it difficult to hear her exact motions, but it doesn't sound like she's breaking anything, and honestly that's really all I had to worry about from her. She's not dumb enough to try and make a run for it just yet. But like I said, she beats up little girls for fun.

She takes a few minutes, turns the water off, dries herself, and puts on the clothes I left her. She comes out with curly wet hair and a very disgruntled look in her inmate-looking clothing, but the top 2 buttons are undone and her nipples poke through the fabric, ruining the look.

I snap some cuffs on her wrists with chains and rings connecting them to her fingers so she can't break her hand trying to get free. Then some shankles on her ankles with some slack in the chain since I'm tired of carrying her ass. I gesture for her to get into the bed.

"What are you going to do with me?" She asks from the bed.

"If the girls can't decide? I'll extract information from you, then make you a training partner. Maybe some physical labor, then something cruel and unusual like data entry for a month straight."

"That sounds dumb."

"If you think you can do data entry so easily, then you can do data entry while under white room torture. Now for the love of The One Above All, shut the fuck and go to sleep, or I'll get even more creative."

She attempts a miniature staring contest before closing her eyes. I don't wait for her to fall asleep, my self-control is already breaking as is. I sit down on the ground and start playing around with some sort of gift. Something to make someone else feel good so I can feel good too…because I need some of that.

9 a.m.

Everyone has collectively decided to wake up around this time. Most of our group didn't sleep well, except for Logan who slept like a Canadian black bear. His rumbling did help me relax though. I almost fell asleep...almost. Nope, I just spent the few hours I had to tinker with things. I really wanted to just go outside and enjoy the cold air, but I can't stand any more hassle with Kimura. Plus, Mercury woke up at some point, mumbling stuff about "Daddy" this and "Daddy" that, "Why don't you love me Daddy." I think she has some daddy issues. But at least she's making progress.

I nudge Kimura awake and leave some clothes at the foot of the bed. I head downstairs to the kitchen where food is cooking with my bag of trinkets in tow.

Logan, Jean, and Mystique are in the kitchen making the food while everyone else is in the living room/lounge either on the couch or on the floor like Monet, who's spikes would cut through the couch if she were to touch it. There are scratches all over the floor just from her crawling around. Most people are watching TV or playing on their phones. 

"Morning everyone." I greet dully, receiving many responses.

"Jesus Christ, you look awful." Logan says to me from the kitchen.

"Don't listen to him. You look fine Tyler, just a bit under the weather" Lorna says from the couch. Her cheerful tone and green coloration brings a little granny smith life back into me. 

"Thanks Lorna. Last night was pretty rough. My head was spinning so I couldn't sleep and instead I worked through the night. I made a few things. Hopefully you guys like them, otherwise the last few hours were wasted. Just to be clear, I'm not trying to buy anyone or anything, just giving people things makes me feel good." 

"It's alright, we all have our coping mechanisms." Lorna replies.

"Thanks. Well these are for you. Girls like jewelry right? I know it's a lot, but I had so much time on my hands." I pull out a big set of jewelry in a box. Every piece is intricate and made mostly out of green beans, whether that's Jade, green diamond, emeralds, green amber, the list is long and I tried incorporating as many as I could. Some of it is made with Adamantium or aged green copper. I know she likes green and she likes metal, so hopefully I can't miss. Along with that I take Adamantium pressurized storage vials for all 92 naturally occurring elements that I could find. Many of the gasses like hydrogen can be pressurized down to a solid, metal-like substance. There's also lots of warning labels and handling instructions to go with it all.

"Like I said, it's a lot, but hopefully you find it useful." This feels weird, I should have just drank lemon juice or something. I wanna hug Nia and Gwen…

"This...are all of these real?" She says, looking at all the jewelry with sparkles in her emerald eyes.

"I tried to mimic naturally occurring ones, but they're all basically lab grown."

"This jewelry set could cause wars. Diamonds don't grow in the shape of Dragons." 

"Maybe once upon a time, sure. If you ever need money, you can sell the jewelry. And if not, they would make good pieces for a Diamonds and Dragons game."

"So you play DnD? Do you want to start a campaign with me? And you gave me dice…I think I'm falling in love." 

"Not for a while. I really only have one friend and so we just play games of Magic the gathering or build lego sets. I'm a pretty big nerd I guess. But you know, I'm glad you like it, but it's no big deal, at least for me it isn't. I don't have a lot of time on my hands, so I can't really keep up a campaign unless you want to do it online." Damn it's so hard trying not to disappoint those green eyes, the green hair and eyebrows only makes it worse. 

"Great! I'd love that!" She jumps up and kisses me on the cheek. I feel something in my check, but whether that's green lipstick or just a phantom feeling, I don't know. And it's so rude to rub my cheek.

I hear Jean coming up behind me. I turn around and she smudges my cheek with a wet thumb, and sure enough there's green residue on her thumb when she takes it away.

"Thanks Jean." Lorna says. Do I detect sass?

"Where's my present?" Jean asks me.

"Same deal, but it's red themed this time and I don't have anything else besides the jewelry." I pull out a similar set of jewelry to Lorna's except this one was red and avian in theme. With gemstones ranging from painite, red emeralds and red diamonds to red jade and amber. The metal base is a bit more varied than Lorna's but it all has a reddish tint.

"Damn. For a guy who lives modestly, you sure give out fancy gifts. How would I ever go about repaying this?" Jean says, picking through the jewelry.

"Money doesn't really matter to me. Hopefully, if not today, but one day, the fact that I gave you something means more to you than what I gave. Now hurry up. You can admire it later, Logan's about to burn the bacon."

"Fine. But what is this slightly clearer crystal?" She holds up one of the more expensive pieces.

"Taaffeite. All the jewelry sets have some."

"Better not tell anybody, Jean. There's only about 50 samples of that stone worldwide. I have a sample back home. You literally can't buy one of those. Literally priceless." Angel says with his arm and wing around Sean.

"Here, you can have someone thread this and these through your wings for formal occasions. White and gold go good together right?" I toss over a spool of gold thread and a sack of gold crystal ornaments to go with it.

"You're welcome to put on yourself" he replies suggestively.

"Um, thanks but no thanks. I'm into girls."

"So am I. I'm not picky when it comes to beauty."

"You can forget about it Angel. He has a girlfriend, and even then, he's mine." Raven says from the kitchen.

"Just to be clear, I don't do casual relationships. I barely do relationships in general. Now I'll present the rest of the trinkets." I clarify, pulling out the rest of the things in the bag.

"This is a set of 3D cameras for the Professor so he can take pictures for the school and whatnot. This is a sound plate and some sand so Sean can see what his voice actually does. A Canadian flag blanket for Logan. A blue gem raven jewelry set for Raven. A set of elements similar to Lorna's for Magneto. A kindle like device for Hank. Lightning glass and storm inspired jewelry set for Storm. Snowflake shurikens for the Iceman. Some knives and utility belts for the Kinney sisters And Armenian jewelry sets for St. Croix sisters. Monet, this is a voice emulator and a wrist-mounted sleeve device that won't get damaged by your skin. It has eye tracking, so you can type by blinking. Once you get the hang of it, you should be able to talk pretty easily. It's a more mature version of your sisters' voices. This is only a temporary measure, but you can think of it as practice so you can bat your eyelashes prettily once we get you back to normal." I take the sleeve and put in over her wrist and then I put the necklace around her neck while her blue eyes stare into my soul. 

"Pretty….." Claudine (St.Croix) says, admiring her jewelry box.

"I can't get married anymore. Any ring a man gives to me would pale in comparison." Nicole (St.Croix) says.

Monet stands up and looks at me, before pulling me into a very strong hug. Then she pulls away, her spiky self tearing my clothing to shreds. She looks at her wrist and tries to use it.

"Sorry...Thank you……...Oh God, you don't know how much this means to me to talk again…...Sorry about your clothes….If I could move my mouth, I'd kiss you." She says, blinking away at her wrist, looking back at me in between sentences.

"You're welcome Monet, but seriously, I have a girlfriend." I knew that graphene underskin was a good idea. I can repair my clothes easily but I could've been bleeding to death just from that hug.

"Can you really change me back?.....my brother said it was a magic curse….can you fix it?"

"Not me personally, but I know quite a few people who probably could. You can come with me and Logan when he gets his memories back. Are you going through with it Logan?" I turn from Monet and ask.

"Sure Bub, what'd I got to lose? Anyways, breakfast is ready. It's buffett style so come to the kitchen and serve yourselves." Logan hollers.

Spread out on the kitchen is a massive All-American breakfast. Eggs any way you want them, omelets, bacon, ham, sausages, toast, waffles, pancakes, the options really are numerous. And while my mind definitely doesn't want to eat, my nose knows better than to not stress eat, especially with this bounty and the fact I won't suffer any side effects. I can't wait to—

Mystique shoves a strawberry into my mouth, which j didn't even notice was open at all. I chew and swallow the strawberry while looking at her yellow snake eyes pupils as she shows off a dainty, cutesy smile.

"I'm sorry, you just look adorable when you're mad." She says as if she did nothing wrong. But oh no, I'm sick of this.

"And so does Logan. Please try to keep the flirting to those you're familiar with. I may appreciate your personality but that has its limit. If you want to ask me something, then do it. Stop picking at me, stop acting. I know your game. This whole flirting thing might as well be a cautious greeting. And maybe there is some real flirting in there, but I doubt it. And regardless Raven, I wouldn't be having that kind of relationship with you of all people." My amusement has all but ran out.

"Why not? You think of me as a whore?" She whispers seductively while putting her hand on my chest.

"No. I think of you as what you are. A survivalist. Someone who looks out for herself, who knows how to get what she wants, when she wants it. You're an opportunist, but it's not like you're entirely selfish. You'd never sacrifice yourself for 10, but for 100, you just might. And with every zero that gets added to a number, you like it more. That's why you care enough about other mutants, because of the impact. And you join others in similar causes not because it's more efficient, but because you want that closeness, that relationship. You want human connection, not because you never had it, but because you always throw it away. You're more scared of getting hurt, than hurting others."

"..." She stiffens.

"But that's okay. I get it. I understand. So there's no need to play with me. Now, I'm gonna fill my plate and go eat a tree on the perimeter along with this lovely breakfast. And out of spite, I just want to let you know Raven, that you have effectively ruined this breakfast. You can keep the jewelry, hopefully it'll remind you to do better." I maneuver around the quiet room and prepare a plate for myself, with everything I can balance on top of it. Then I stride to the back doors, leaving the stunned group.

"Wait!!! What if I was actually interested?" Raven calls out.

"Then you'd be your own fricking mirror so I wouldn't have to. Figure it out!" I face her and say, continuing to walk back out the door and closing it as angrily and softly as I can.

=<>=

Jean Grey

"You know you didn't have to do that Raven. He's genuinely nice. I can understand if he came to us, but we approached him first. What could he honestly gain from us that he couldn't buy with a couple of these pieces of jewelry" I tell her. I mean, just look at it.

"People don't just act all nice like he does without a motive. I'm just trying to fish it out. If you and Charles weren't such chickens, you would've found out by now." Raven replies.

"The reason why you, I, and everyone else here is still alive is because of caution. Tyler is not just dangerous, he's unknown. I'd rather others take on the consequences of angering him." Professor says.

"For once, me and Charles agree. Tyler is dangerous, unbelievably so. He's demonstrated both extremely high intelligence and what I can assume is an in-depth knowledge of all of us. If he wanted us dead, he could poison the air, over half of us would be dead before we knew it. The other half might be able to survive due to teamwork and the exceptionally strong among us, but he could easily just create a plan to destroy us all in a sneak attack. We'd be praying for a chance at reanimation and chances like that are few in number. You're barking up the wrong tree, Raven. It's not like you to be brash." Magneto says from the kitchen table.

"I don't know, he's pretty blunt and truthful to me. He basically laid himself out and said his kindness was purely for selfish enjoyment. He's cute and quirky. I kinda like it. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see why you guys want to make the world seem even more dreadful and gloomy than it already is." Lorna intersects. 

"...Tyler cares. I can tell the difference between real and fake compassion….His is real." Monet says from the living room.

"He... doesn't seem to have any ill-intent." Claudine says slowly next to her sister Monet.

"He gives us free stuff. I'm not seeing any downsides to this." Nicole says while checking different rings on her hand.

"I think we can all agree he's a little weird, but aren't we all? How you guys accepted me, I have no clue. Can't we just let this go? Whatever happens, happens." Logan says. It's very concerning when Logan's the voice of reason.

"There was a thief king back in Egypt. He would take orphans like me and teach us how to steal. How to provide for ourselves, and how to defend ourselves. He never asked a single thing from us. There are truly kind people. They're just rare. Whether Tyler's one of them or not, I don't know, but what I do know is that breakfast was ruined by Raven, so she'll be doing all the dishes and lectures for the next 3 days. And if I hear anybody talk mess about anyone for the next month, I'll have you doing extra homework and chores. You'll be digging trenches if I can't find anything else for you to do." Storm says naggingly. I'm surprised she was quiet for so long. She usually just Moms things as soon as they appear.

"I'm not part of the school, you can't make me do anything." Raven hisses. I bet she's disgruntled that Tyler rejected her so hard. That's what you get when you flirt with everything that moves. With her record, she might have actually been flirting with him, I mean he is handsome.

"Oh really? If you aren't part of the school—then leave!" Storm replies, her eyes going white while a miniature storm billows into existence. I hate it when she does this, the static electricity ruins my hair. After a few short seconds, Storm returns both herself and the school back to normal, leaving everyone with static hair, but Raven bared the brunt of it, her short red bob cut hair is now a giant sphere around her head, until she morphs it back to normalcy.

"Today's a free day, so enjoy your gifts or whatever. I'm going to go check on Tyler. Hopefully he isn't literally eating a tree." Storm says, heading outside.

=<>=

Tyler Riddle

Next to a pile of tree branches and split logs.

I was listening to the havoc inside mostly because I still feel the need to keep tabs on Kimura, but she's still in bed, no doubt hiding from everyone who could destroy her in a fight. It was interesting listening to everyone's thoughts about me. I'd say most of them are in point, but I wonder what they would do if they knew I could hear them. 

Interesting bit with Storm though. I felt it was kinda weird that she rarely talked in front of me. She probably has some real reservations regarding me. But why's she making her way to me now?

"You're really eating one of our trees?" Storm asks me.

"I do dumb stuff when I'm pissed."

"Yeah, sorry about us letting her test you like that. You just came on in a very weird way. It's creating a lot of discussion in the group."

"It was intentional on my part. I recognize that I'm a very complex character and I abhor false pleasantries, so, I feel the need to lay down some basic understandings as soon as possible. And I wouldn't call a storm inside the mansion, conversation. My hearing is pretty good you know."

"Damn, what can't you do?" 

"I can't do most things, but that's probably not what you came out here to hear."

"What do you want?" Wow, jumping straight to the gun. I like it.

"I want lots of things. I want safety and security for me and those I care about. I want to help people in general. And I want to feel good while doing all that. So obviously I need money and power and all sorts of things people pursue greedily but it's only a means to an end. Now if you're asking me what I want from you and the school, I want to develop friendships. To say I idolize you all wouldn't be incorrect. And it's true that I know a lot about you all, but I understand that you're real people. I'm a real person."

"That didn't really help like I thought it would."

"It wasn't meant to. It was meant to confuse you and prove a point. Just like me pretending to eat this tree. Of course I have my own motives, but that doesn't matter. Not really. My plans can't afford to wait weeks for you guys to get a feel for me just because all you guys have trust issues. Those gifts don't really matter to me personally. They're just trinkets I made casually, and if you all want to, you can throw it all away. I want to be as honest with you guys as possible and it's incredibly disappointing that I have to wierd you guys out to curb your distrust."

"Well you can't just expect us to not feel concerned when someone just shows up one day essentially saying they know EVERYTHING about us."

"You showed up at MY home. And I didn't give you things or tell you things to scare you, but to draw a line in the sand But, that's not to say I don't understand. It's just all of this could have been avoided if you all thought more with your head than your heart."

"What do you think I've been doing? All I've done is try to understand who the fuck you are."

"All you've done is analyze me as an enemy. My strengths, weaknesses, motivations, etc. And probably the 9nly reason you came out here is because you felt like you just couldn't figure me out. I mean you have to be cautious, but I'm sure you guys did some sort of research on me. I don't know what but I'm sure you guys did something to verify who I was. It was probably the Proffesor and the fact that you found whatever is out there and still decided to be overly suspicious of me that you allowed someone who was an enemy not even a week ago, poke and prod at me, just blows my mind. I hope you found what you're looking for, otherwise we're not gonna get anywhere.Now if you excuse me, I need to go refill the X-Jet. I forgot to do it last night. Then I need to leave. I want to be hugging the two loves of my life before the sun sets." I get up and start heading back to the mansion.

"Tyler. I'm sorry, and I'm sure the others were too. Thank you for the gifts, really. We shouldn't have been so cold to you." Storm says, making me turn back around.

"It really doesn't matter if you're sorry. If you really care, then change, otherwise don't. I'll just be more in the background I guess. If you ever need to get ahold of me, then you know how to do it."

=<=>=

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