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Haguro      After long months... Month? After a good while of fighting ot round up all her missing wreck's pieces, Haguro's finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. To facilitate the end of the whole process, she's invited Guzma to her working space at one of the Concord's naval bases.

     It's kind of a mess today. There's random chunks of steel and electronic scrap strewn all about what looks more like a garage than a proper working area. Prosthetic limbs, control panels, pieces of construction vehicles, and a vault door are all strewn about haphazardly, and Haguro herself is doing pullups on a series of bolted-together pipes while bandaged up from head to toe.

     At least the door is big enough to get in.
Guzma Guzma is coming alone, since he was invited alone. He's dressed in his fancy digs, jacket and chains and watches, like a thug boss. The white-haired man steps through the door as he reaches it, having been directed to Haguro's area by a soldier. Once he gets in, well...

"Wow, this place is a mess." He sniffs, trying to avoid stepping on a hand and instead making it over to where Haguro is doing pullups. "Can't afford an actual gym?" It's actually meant 'friendly' - he hasn't been on missions much with her, but Haguro's been cool to him on the radio, so he doesn't dislike her.

Once he gets into a safe position, he looks around more cleanly. "Yo. You've really gotten to work here."
Haguro      Hearing Guzma coming in, Haguro releases her grip on the pipe and lands with a slight stagger and wince. She straightens back out a moment later, though, turning to him with a polite smile and doing an okay job at hiding it. "Ah, Mister Guzma. I can, but it just felt like a waste of money when I have so much of the... Me lying around."

     She chuckles lightly, the awkwardness still lingering in her tone since she is literally surrounded by pieces of her wreck in various forms. Also, a new looking couch, but that probably doesn't have parts of her in it.

     Maybe. "Please, have a seat. Thank you for bringing the... Uh." Making her way over to a fridge in the corner, Haguro pops it open before turning back to Guzma and holding up a handful of bottles. "Regular, diet, the weird one?"

    Never let it be said thatHaguro is a bad host, even if the workspace isn't so nice. After bringing Guzma his chosen beverage, the shipgirl finally grabs a towel to wipe her head off. "Thank you for the assistance last time. I think that whole... Ordeal is finished now, so it'll be easier to focus on other things. I've been trying to figure out what to do with all of this, but..." She shrugs after a few wordless moments.
Guzma "Wait. Are you exercising on yourself?" Guzma's brain goes to weird places, then he shrugs, walks over to the couch, and takes a seat as requested. "No problem. Weird one." Show her you're cool, Guzma.

Once he has his drink, he takes a sip, and makes a face. He didn't read the label. "The heck is this?"

And then, after a few moments, he nods. "Alright. But you didn't just call me down all the way here to thank me for getting it back, did ya? Could have just said that over the radio. So, what's up?"
Haguro      "Only the leftmost one is. I bought the rest at a Home Depot since I wasn't sure how long it would take to get the rest." Haguro explains, tapping the indicated pipe with another bottle before squinting at Guzma's drink. "... 'Fun Fun Umbrella Juice'. I don't really understand some of these newer brands."

     It could have been worse.

     After stepping out briefly to drag in a few more of the bulkier items into the garage, Haguro finally answers Guzma with... More questions! "I could have, but I wanted to pick your brain a little. How do you feel about death?" She pauses, then turns to Guzma quickly with her palms open to indicate a lack of weaponry. She doesn't even have her guns on!

     "Ah.. I-i mean as a concept. Dying, killing, people that do that sort of thing. Have you ever died or killed someone before?" She's asking those with a completely serious tone, too.
Guzma "What the heck is Fun Fun Umbrella Juice?!" Guzma replies, after nodding about the Home Depot. He has no idea what this juice tastes like, only that it's weird. He then takes another drink as Haguro is moving in items, and she decides to ask him about death.

He spews some of the drink onto the floor from sheer surprise. It's just enough time for Haguro to lift her hands and show that it's just a concept. As he coughs and moves to grab a towel to clean up his mess, he grunts.

"Ugh. What kind of question is that?" He scratches his chin, thinks about it, and lifts his feet up, looking for the least Haguro-piece-looking thing to set them on.

"I've never died, nah. And I've never killed. I don't plan on it. It'd make me a real G, sure, but...then I'd have to live with that the rest of my life." He takes another drink, reluctantly to wash down his suddenly dry throat, and then...

"Rapp killed a guy with her Pokemon. It was completely accidental - he got poisoned to death. She's still got nightmares, y'know. It's not easy."
Haguro      Once the initial shock wears off, haguro takes a seat and lounges back while listening to Guzma's response. She smiles after a moment, even nodding once. "Good. It's... It gets easier after the first time, but you're better off never having that happen."

     She doesn't elaborate on whether she means dying or killing, but she probably means both. "That's not to say it won't happen, but if it does, you'll... You'll pull through. You have support from your friends and the Concord. It won't be easy, but doing what you feel is right rarely is. If the option is there, though?"

     Haguro pats her chest lightly. "Leave it to the experts."

    When he mentions that one of his crew killed someone, Haguro's tone softens a bit further. "I see... No, not for the first time. Or even the tenth. Hundredth, maybe. Even if she didn't use her own hands to do it, if she's taking it that hard..." Haguro chugs half of her bottle at once. "... She sounds like a good person, too. Stay with her, won't you?"
Guzma "Yeah, I know." Is all Guzma says, taking another drink to avoid having to talk. As she tells him to 'leave it to the experts', though, he grimaces. It feels like he's being talked down to, even if he assumes she doesn't mean it.

"Rapp? She's part of my crew. I'm not going to give up on her. She's got potential, yo." And then, taking a slight sip, he closes the bottle and puts it down.

"So. Why are you asking about death? What's your plan going forward, huh?"
Haguro      "Good. That's actually one of the perks of joining the Concord, I've noticed. Everyone having their own methods, disagreements, but at the end of the day? We band together to make sure we all come out ahead." Haguro chuckles again, leaning back into the couch and finishing off the soda before getting up.

     "Did you know I almost joined the Paladins? Back when things..." Holding up her empty bottle, Haguro pantomimes shaking it and the bottle exploding. "... I can't imagine them supporting what I plan to do, though. I-in theory, I mean. A lot of people are probably going to die, and I'm.... Going to have to kill a lot of them."

     Somehow, Haguro still seems to be troubled by that. "But that's why people like you are so important. You haven't killed anyone yet, so you still have potential. Even if you do kill one or two people, you won't lose it. Not until you become too jaded to it. Then you become like... Well, someone like me." She pauses, still not answering his question directly while also trying (badly) not to look too uncomfortable. It probably has something to do with whatever she's planning.
Guzma "It's a good group - everyone here respects each other - mostly." He doesn't name names, Guzma instead finishing off his own soda and holding the bottle in his hands. "The Paladins? Man, you made the right choice. They're too worried about accountability. I'd never fit there. They'd want me to protect society, y'know."

But Haguro's thing goes down a dark road. Even though she's saying he has potential, and he likes that, that's not what he focuses on. "What are you going to do? What's your goal? We're allies, right? You can trust me. Because whatever it is, it's weighing on you, and like..."

"If you just hold it in, instead of letting everyone know, you won't be able to get the support you need."
Haguro      "Protecting society isn't a bad thing. Humans need someone stronger and smarter to protect them from..." Haguro hesitates, then grimaces just a bit as she continues. "... Everything. Threats from outside, themselves, gravity, the list goes on."

     Guzma asks her more directly again, and Haguro lacks teh wherewithal to keep pushing it off. As she goes back to the fridge to grab another soda, already starts speaking. "It's a still a work in progress, but you know how certain people tend to posture a lot? Claiming the moral high ground, fighting for vague notions of freedom and justice, saying that they're not going to stoop to the murderer's level by killing the murderer, then... More or less baving blood on their hands when the murderer goes free?"

    Picking out several more bottles of soda, Haguro holds them up for Guzma to pick before bringing that and two other random ones back over. "I've found a few potential... Targets. Navies from volatile areas that don't have great relations with another volatile nation."

    She takes another deep breath, still sounding uncertain. "I.... I'm going to destroy them. Before they can go to war."
Guzma "Yeah, but it rejected me. I don't owe it anything." Is all Guzma says, before Haguro goes into what she's gonna say. And then she starts talking about...well, honestly, Guzma doesn't get her plan. "So...you're gonna destroy them, to, what, make yourself the bigger fish? Make them fear you? Or is this to stop them from going to war by taking out their navies? They're gonna try and kill you, you know. You take out several navies, you're gonna get missiles on ya. Is that why you're asking about death? You afraid of killing, or you afraid of dying?"

He takes a plain cola this time, using it to rinse down the umbrella-flavor, whatever that is. "Well. Either way, the Paladins are gonna shoot you. You're gonna need to gather some allies, I think."
Haguro      "I understand the feeling... I was made by one part of it to destroy the other part of it, and then after my job was done... Well." Haguro glances around the garage at the assorted pieces of steel and circuit based things. "... They tore my wreck apart to make these."

    She rubs her forehead lightly, then reaches back to massage one of her bandaged shoulders. "That's... Part one, yes. I know they're going to oppose me. I'll probably die doing this, all things considered. It's not the first time I've died, and if it happens at sea, I'll just come back, but..."

     There's another anxious look in her eyes unlike that confidence she had earlier. "... I'm not sure as what. And dying is still terrifying, even after the fifth.. Sixth time." She glances aside, trying to be subtle about mouthing something silently to herself and counting off on her fingers, but she's sitting right there. It's kind of hard to miss.

     "That's why I think it might be better if I resigned from the Concord beforehand. This could paint a target on everyone's backs If you and everyone else joined in." She pops open her soda, takes a swig, then looks back at Guzma again. "What do you think? You're still fairly new to the organization, so I was hoping to get a fresher take on this. And.. Um. Sorry for putting this on you so suddenly."
Guzma Guzma can see the pain in Haguro's words. The anxiety. He's not good at this. He's not a comforting person. He's a gangster. The big bad boss.

But she wants his support here. So he swallows, takes a long drink of cola, and then..."Are you /kidding me/?!"

"Of course not! This is the Concord! We get targets painted on our backs just by being better than everyone else! Y'know, Doc Eggman's doing some crazy crud that'll get a target on his back, and you know what the others said? 'Yeah, we'll help you'. Why? Because we're a crew."

Guzma needs training. But he's not going to stand by and let Haguro just leave the gang. "If you want to leave, then my take is that you gotta do it the gang way. Give a pinkie or something, however they do it in other worlds where they're super tight." A long pause. A very long pause, waiting to see Haguro's reaction.

"You hesitant about that? Of course you are. You don't want to go - you just care about your clan. That's natural. We're in it together."
Haguro      Guzma's animated reaction actually catches Haguro off guard. Even from him, she was expecting something more controlled and not... All of that. "Well, yes, but.. I mean, he's... That's different because that's whatpeople expect. This is..."

     Her composure is already falling apart, and the dramatic resignation she's apparently been psyching herself up for is already in shambles. To make matters worse, Guzma's even gotten the rest of the Concord into it, and the worst part is that she can't even deny any of it.

     It doesn't take long before she's red in the face and he reyes starting tearing up. She hides it briefly, wiping her face with that sweat towel, then retches slightly before chuckling and wiping her face off with a forearm. "You're... You're quite the bully, you know that?" Despite the tears, however, she actually laughs, then drowns her excess of emotions in more soda. "Still, I guess there's some merit to that. I mean, it worked."

     She exhales slowly, then shakes her head. "But now I need to redo my plans again... Second time this week." Haguro feigns annoyance, but can't keep it up for long before chuckling again. "... I'm surprised you're not more popular. Have you considered a suit?"
Guzma Guzma grabs his radio, and says stuff. He's bullying Haguro on it. But he's doing it to help. After a while, he stops, about when she's crying, and, he seems like he feels bad about /that/, until he realizes she's not mad at him.

He chuckles awkwardly. "I'm the big bad Guzma, of course I am."

Taking a drink of his second soda before setting it down, he turns to her. "When you go to punch their faces, call me. We may not be close, but, hey, you were able to tell me this. Least I can do is punch those jerks."

A pause. "A suit, huh? I haven't considered it." He is now considering it.
Haguro      "Of course. If nobody else says it?" Haguro finishes her second soda, then smiles at Guzma far more warmly than he's probably seen from her in recent ever. "You're a fine addition to the Concord, rough edges and all."

     A beat, and then Haguro's eyes light up. "Also, I've seen suits with removable sleeves that can be tailored to look worn down if you're into that kind of look. Inner pockets can hide things like brass knuckles or other weapons, and even the pants can hide extra gear without looking too bulky..."