Dĩ hoà vi quý.

He’s just hanging around. On top of a shelf. Watching the world from the shadows.

Guntram assumed it was due to Shadow's ability to quite literally hide in the shadows, but even then, he would have thought their military security would have upgraded to the point they could detect it. He supposed alien technology was still out of their reach.

Pop hadn’t said a word- in fact, his eyes had practically lit up when Guntram had started to ramble. That stuff just sounded so cool…! Maybe it was because Pop’s perception of military work was a bit (read: highly) idealized, but still. Heat-seeking stuff existed, he knew that, but that wasn’t always reliable. Was this a new method, or-?

“No, no- I wanna hear more!” For being old enough to be in college, Pop did seem a little more on the childlike side at the moment. “What else can you tell me about- I mean, that won’t get you in trouble. …Actually, no, I wanna hear about that, too, if you’re willin’ to tell me!”

Oops. Guntram, congratulations, you’ve made friends with the biggest troublemaker to be unleashed from Light Labs. At the very least, though, he was more than happy to hear about what the weapons nerd had to say, and even if he’d figured out by now that this was one of the reprogrammed DWNs (which he hadn’t), any remaining uncertainty about hanging out with them was well tossed out the window by the casual talk of weaponry and the fact that Guntram was willing to overlook nearly being blamed for one of Pop’s accidents.

Wait - Pop was actually interested? As in, he wasn’t eager to drop the subject or just force a polite face for his sake? He really, genuinely wanted to hear what he had to say?

Pop is now his new best friend. With a wide grin, Guntram tried not to bounce with excitement, searching his processor for something he could start blabbing about.

“Oh! It depends on what you want to hear about! Each branch has different weapons, of course, and there’s others I can neither confirm or deny, but, but...!” If there was such a thing as excitement overload, Guntram would be experiencing it right now. Of course, he was aware he was in public, and he wasn’t sure how comfortable anyone else would be if they saw a robot in uniform talking about dangerous weapons. He had to suppress his excitement for a few moments, not wanting to look too enthusiastic about weaponry.

“Of course things changed. I know that they did.” Snakeman replied, his eyes narrowing. “What else would you expect to happen? That does not change the fact that you were taken against your will. I’m certain that you tried your hardest to avoid capture. In that case, you should not concern yourself with repercussions from Master Wily.”

He grit his teeth upon hearing Guntram say that he no longer had a place amongst Wily’s ranks. Snakeman believed that despite what was lost when Guntram had been captured, it didn’t remove his status as a DWN. Guntram hadn’t merely given in to being captured, he had fought back. In Snake’s eyes, that was plenty of reason to have Guntram return to Wily.

“What makes you think that? You’re a DWN and you always will be. The same goes for the rest of your line. Your place is with Master Wily, and the capture of you and your siblings all those years ago doesn’t matter. It plays no factor in your ability to return home. Furthermore, do you honestly care that little for your own well-being?” Snake was beginning to get angry, mostly due to Guntram’s refusal to return home. At the same time, he was agitated by the mere notion that the other robot thought that it didn’t matter if he was free or not under the humans.

“I have no doubt in my mind that the humans treat you poorly, especially because it’s the military. Whether you deny it or not, it’s the truth. Returning to Master Wily would grant you and your siblings a safe place to live, without the restrictions place onto you by the humans. If you won’t think about yourself, at least consider the well-being of your line. Maybe then you’ll reconsider your decision to stay under the rule of those who would scrap you, your siblings, or any robots for that matter, should you not satisfy their needs.”

Seeing as how Guntram was still trying to get him to leave, Snake stared him down, looking him directly in the eyes. He was almost glaring. He put his hands into his coat pockets, making sure to keep eye contact with the other robot.

It was rather... isolating, feeling like no one would understand, even if that wasn’t entirely true.

“Snake,” Guntram growled, tears of anger starting to prick at his optics. “You aren’t listening to me. All of those things play a factor in my ability to... to go back to Dr. W-Wily. Those factors have already determined that I can’t go back, no matter how much anyone hopes otherwise. It doesn’t matter if I would be better off there because I don’t have that option. Everyone else in my line, were they not reprogrammed, would return to their father in a heartbeat. As for me, I don’t have a father to return to. All I have is an ex-boss whom I failed to serve, and how I am treated here does not mean I can go back.”

Guntram sighed, trying to collect himself, but all he was was upset and angry. For as much as Snake was his brother, Dr. Wily was not his father, and that was something he didn’t think would get through to the DWN. He gave Snake a nasty glare when he tried to put him on the hot seat, and had to refrain from screaming.

Guntram's eyes lit up when the conversation shifted to his job handling weapons training. "Pretty much the whole load on my base! There's so much to cover, and not everyone comes in pre-programmed with what they need to know, so I take care of that. There's also new weapons being tested everyday, and I'm usually a part of the pilot programs! We're testing busters that can fire shots that automatically correct their trajectory so they can hit moving targets! And-"

Guntram cut himself off, chuckling nervously. Whoops, looks like he had gone off on a tangent there, and in his experience, civilians weren't all that interested in military weaponry. That, and he had to be careful about what he said, since a lot of the weapons they were testing were classified, though he doubted his programming would let him spill the beans on those.