#kindquest

While Mark and Eve have a little date, Conquest and Nolan have a "friendly" chat to catch up on things.

Conquest is drifting through some town or city in his civilian persona and gets mistaken for an amputee war veteran, leading to him getting invited to a veterans support group. Conquest goes, figuring it'll be good reconnaissance for how Earth warriors think.

He thinks it'll be just a bunch of macho soldiers boasting about their best kills or greatest battles. Then he hears people discussing their trauma, questioning whether the wars they participated in were worth it, and how to readjust to civilian life. All these ideas are unthinkable to a Viltrumite.

Conquest is confused and disgusted by seeing warriors show vulnerability to each other, and definitely says some harsh things about it at first. No one in the group takes it personally, interpreting Conquest's attitude as the new guy not being ready to face his demons. Conquest continues going out of sheer curiousity at how another soldier could view war so differently from how Viltrumites do.

Eventually, Conquest starts participating in the group and sharing war stories of his own, changing the names and places as to preserve his cover. The other guys find it strange that Conquest won't disclose his unit or give too many specifics. They conclude that Conquest might have been a PMC or CIA blackops guy during the Cold War, and there's a betting pool on which it is. All the while, Conquest uses the meetings to give a voice to the doubts he’s held about his role as a living weapon, thoughts he’d struggle to articulate as a Viltrumite.