[Kagari just lets out a vague tch at that answer, shifting his head to look literally anywhere else but at Ginoza. There's a weird twist in his gut at the implication of the former Inspector being worried about him. He knows that Gino was never really as cold as he acted; his relationships with Kogami and Masaoka were testament enough to that, but Kagari was different. He's not someone Ginoza knew on the other side, someone who lost his way and never came back. He was merely the trash Gino fished out of the gutter because Sybil thought he was intelligent enough to be a hunting dog.
Maybe Gino's just projecting onto him, though. Kou-chan's gone, and from what he's gathered from listening in on conversations and whispers outside his room, something happened to the old man, too. Probably related to the same Makishima incident, he assumes. It makes sense Gino wouldn't want to lose another figure in his life, one that's been a steady (if annoying) presence for the last two years.
That last part is what finally gets Kagari to sit up again. It takes him a minute before he wrangles whatever discomfort was snarled at his chest before he can finally respond.]
Yeah, neither am I.
[The first thing he did on seeing Gino was take a potshot at his new latent criminal status, after all.]
You were an Inspector, though. Akane-chan's great, but you and I both know she's kinda weird, too.
[He shrugs again, though it's more of a deliberate one this time, the casualness to it forced]
Let's be real. If you didn't decide I'd be a worthwhile attack dog, I'd still be rotting in that fucking facility.
[It's not about forgiving and forgetting. Ginoza saved his life in a way, as much as he was comfortable treating him like scum afterward. And Kagari? Kagari's always hated himself just as much as he's hated Sybil for the way he's had to live. He doesn't hold it against Ginoza in any personal way; it's just all folded into his general grudge against society at large. And now...well. Gino's in the dumpster with him. That doesn't mean he'll be exempt of any future pettiness, but Kagari's not a person who's cruel just for the sake of it, either.]
[ It shouldn't be relieving to hear that coming from Lagari. That he isn't a forgiving person either. Rightfully, he should be on edge with the fact but he can't be. Not when it's karma— deserved after how he'd lashed out and projected his problems on everyone around him. Besides, he knows their files, can remember every detail of his personnel. Kagari had a mean streak, a little bit of pettiness and cynicism he carried with him.
Years spent in that facility would do that to a person. Gino had done his best not to remain there for long, knowing how it drove a person crazy. Maybe one day with Tsunemori, they could change that. ]
She is weird, isn't she?
[ But the way he says it is fond. She's weird but that's just what the MWPSB needs right now. ]
You're certain? I— sorry, of course. You never say things you don't mean.
[ Kagari was cynical but he was straightforward. It's one of the reasons Gino had liked having him around. ]
Will you come back to the team, after this? Tsunemori would like having you back. If you don't want the risk, though, we'll find something for you.
[ Gino looks at him seriously, direct. He's not so cold hearted as to send Kagari back into that facility. Serious injuries or not. ]
[Kagari had a habit of lashing out, at times. Trouble with his temper, an inclination toward aggression. Scathing or vicious things said in the heat of the moment. It was a little like a volcano; the pressure would build up and explode outward from time to time, and then fall dormant.
Kagari might not be a particularly forgiving person, when grudges are in fact incurred, but he gets over the kind of things that stir his temper in the moment pretty easily. The thing with him, though, was that you always knew exactly how he felt about you; he was never one for platitudes or niceties--if there was one freedom he ever had as a latent criminal, it was the fact that nothing he did mattered. Others might be encouraged to play nice, for the sake of their hue, but for him, that didn't matter. As long as he was useful, he'd get to stay an Enforcer, making his Psycho-Pass all but irrelevant.]
Don't get all weird on me about it. Jeez, I just said I don't hate you, it's not that big a deal.
[And maybe he's still a little existentially uncomfortable about Gino acting like this with him, instead of the harsh and prickly attitude he had before everything went to hell. It's like having that one sibling with whom you always interacted via pranks and bickering suddenly telling you that they care about you and worry about you one day. He doesn't know how to handle it, still, so he moves right on to the next thing.]
Anyway, of course I'm coming back, are you kidding me?
[Said with full awareness of the fact that Ginoza Nobuchika never kids anyone, ever, has debatably even laughed at a joke in his entire life.]
Shit, it's not like I was ever gonna have a long, full life or anything. [Sybil decided that a decade and a half ago.]
I've known I was gonna die with the MWPSB ever since I joined. That's fine with me.
Edited (wording nitpick skdljfas sorry for all these edits) 2017-11-18 03:30 (UTC)
[ And it does, because his footing has changed. He knows Kagari senses it, the difference in their address. How he's leveled out, sharp words falling by the wayside. There are turning points in everyone's life and Ginoza has been through his second one. First it'd been his father becoming a latent criminal, leaving him and his mother behind to deal with the fallout. With the stigma. He survived it all but not without scraping away at his edges, building layers of armor.
Then it'd been Kogami, treading the same path. Sasayama's death pushing him over the edge where Ginoza couldn't join him.
Except he had. Masaoka was gone for good this time. He'd never hear his father's gruff voice telling a joke, nor catch the careful lines of worry around his eyes. He'd cared about his son and Gino had thrown it in his face. It'd been a mistake, something he couldn't take back. But he's determined to learn from it, apply it to something he has control over.
Like here and now, with Kagari. No longer are they divided by roles and he means to hold out a hand to the redhead a second time. Genuinely, without the prompting of Sybil, without the impressive record. Just because he trusts Kagari and wants something good for him, even if it'll never be truly good under Sybil's watchful eye. ]
Neither of us are in for a long life, you know that. A full life– maybe that's still possible.
[It's a genuine question; Division 1 has always been his home, the closest to family he's had since he was five years old, but he and Gino lived in different worlds. Kagari doesn't really understand why his lack of antipathy--or truly, his opinion at all--should mean anything to the former Inspector. He was a nobody to him, after all, just another wild beast to handle. It seems weird to Kagari that that should change merely because Gino himself became a latent criminal. Maybe he's lonely, without Kou-chan around, with Akane-chan more busy now. Kagari of all people can relate to that.]
Y'know, this thing's not gonna work if you feel like you gotta apologize for being who you were.
[Kagari had walked into the MWPSB with a giant chip on his shoulder, and Kogami had surprised him. He'd been an Inspector too, once, but he knew how to set Kagari at ease, how to relate to him. They had been equals, for the time Kagari had known him. With Gino, it already seems like he's going to carry around their former difference in power like his own personal sin to bear.]
Anyway. You know what I meant. [He'd never experience the life of a "normal person", after all, no matter how easy Akane tried to make things on them.] But I always had a fun time being an Enforcer, so yeah, I'm staying on board.
[ It's a valid point and it's one he knows he's going to struggle with for a while. If there was one thing that could be said of him is that he never did anything by halves. Once he finally made up his mind, he went full bore– that included making amends. He hadn't known, exactly, how Kagari was going to react. Or rather, he'd spun himself up anxiously, a thousand insults and pricking comments coming back to him in perfect clarity.
Hindsight was a cruel mistress. ]
No, I'd been mistaken. I never want to be so short-sighted again. [ Not when– no, he won't think about that here. ]
A fun time? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you enjoy the adrenaline rush.
[Kagari....rolls his eyes. Actually, he's kind of done with this self-flagellating now? Gino can keep doing it on his own time.]
So what do you want from me? To hate you? Or for this to be a whole Thing where I gotta keep telling you we're square? You wanna make shit up to me? Don't talk to me with all this pity. Ohhh, I'm so sorry I was shitty to you and made your life hard? You and the rest of Japan. Get over it.
[......well, if Gino expected to get bitched at, he. finally got it? there's only so much charitable Kagari's got in him.]
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no subject
Maybe Gino's just projecting onto him, though. Kou-chan's gone, and from what he's gathered from listening in on conversations and whispers outside his room, something happened to the old man, too. Probably related to the same Makishima incident, he assumes. It makes sense Gino wouldn't want to lose another figure in his life, one that's been a steady (if annoying) presence for the last two years.
That last part is what finally gets Kagari to sit up again. It takes him a minute before he wrangles whatever discomfort was snarled at his chest before he can finally respond.]
Yeah, neither am I.
[The first thing he did on seeing Gino was take a potshot at his new latent criminal status, after all.]
You were an Inspector, though. Akane-chan's great, but you and I both know she's kinda weird, too.
[He shrugs again, though it's more of a deliberate one this time, the casualness to it forced]
Let's be real. If you didn't decide I'd be a worthwhile attack dog, I'd still be rotting in that fucking facility.
[It's not about forgiving and forgetting. Ginoza saved his life in a way, as much as he was comfortable treating him like scum afterward. And Kagari? Kagari's always hated himself just as much as he's hated Sybil for the way he's had to live. He doesn't hold it against Ginoza in any personal way; it's just all folded into his general grudge against society at large. And now...well. Gino's in the dumpster with him. That doesn't mean he'll be exempt of any future pettiness, but Kagari's not a person who's cruel just for the sake of it, either.]
So....yeah. We're good.
no subject
Years spent in that facility would do that to a person. Gino had done his best not to remain there for long, knowing how it drove a person crazy. Maybe one day with Tsunemori, they could change that. ]
She is weird, isn't she?
[ But the way he says it is fond. She's weird but that's just what the MWPSB needs right now. ]
You're certain? I— sorry, of course. You never say things you don't mean.
[ Kagari was cynical but he was straightforward. It's one of the reasons Gino had liked having him around. ]
Will you come back to the team, after this? Tsunemori would like having you back. If you don't want the risk, though, we'll find something for you.
[ Gino looks at him seriously, direct. He's not so cold hearted as to send Kagari back into that facility. Serious injuries or not. ]
no subject
[Kagari had a habit of lashing out, at times. Trouble with his temper, an inclination toward aggression. Scathing or vicious things said in the heat of the moment. It was a little like a volcano; the pressure would build up and explode outward from time to time, and then fall dormant.
Kagari might not be a particularly forgiving person, when grudges are in fact incurred, but he gets over the kind of things that stir his temper in the moment pretty easily. The thing with him, though, was that you always knew exactly how he felt about you; he was never one for platitudes or niceties--if there was one freedom he ever had as a latent criminal, it was the fact that nothing he did mattered. Others might be encouraged to play nice, for the sake of their hue, but for him, that didn't matter. As long as he was useful, he'd get to stay an Enforcer, making his Psycho-Pass all but irrelevant.]
Don't get all weird on me about it. Jeez, I just said I don't hate you, it's not that big a deal.
[And maybe he's still a little existentially uncomfortable about Gino acting like this with him, instead of the harsh and prickly attitude he had before everything went to hell. It's like having that one sibling with whom you always interacted via pranks and bickering suddenly telling you that they care about you and worry about you one day. He doesn't know how to handle it, still, so he moves right on to the next thing.]
Anyway, of course I'm coming back, are you kidding me?
[Said with full awareness of the fact that Ginoza Nobuchika never kids anyone, ever, has debatably even laughed at a joke in his entire life.]
Shit, it's not like I was ever gonna have a long, full life or anything. [Sybil decided that a decade and a half ago.]
I've known I was gonna die with the MWPSB ever since I joined. That's fine with me.
no subject
[ And it does, because his footing has changed. He knows Kagari senses it, the difference in their address. How he's leveled out, sharp words falling by the wayside. There are turning points in everyone's life and Ginoza has been through his second one. First it'd been his father becoming a latent criminal, leaving him and his mother behind to deal with the fallout. With the stigma. He survived it all but not without scraping away at his edges, building layers of armor.
Then it'd been Kogami, treading the same path. Sasayama's death pushing him over the edge where Ginoza couldn't join him.
Except he had. Masaoka was gone for good this time. He'd never hear his father's gruff voice telling a joke, nor catch the careful lines of worry around his eyes. He'd cared about his son and Gino had thrown it in his face. It'd been a mistake, something he couldn't take back. But he's determined to learn from it, apply it to something he has control over.
Like here and now, with Kagari. No longer are they divided by roles and he means to hold out a hand to the redhead a second time. Genuinely, without the prompting of Sybil, without the impressive record. Just because he trusts Kagari and wants something good for him, even if it'll never be truly good under Sybil's watchful eye. ]
Neither of us are in for a long life, you know that. A full life– maybe that's still possible.
:o !!
[It's a genuine question; Division 1 has always been his home, the closest to family he's had since he was five years old, but he and Gino lived in different worlds. Kagari doesn't really understand why his lack of antipathy--or truly, his opinion at all--should mean anything to the former Inspector. He was a nobody to him, after all, just another wild beast to handle. It seems weird to Kagari that that should change merely because Gino himself became a latent criminal. Maybe he's lonely, without Kou-chan around, with Akane-chan more busy now. Kagari of all people can relate to that.]
Y'know, this thing's not gonna work if you feel like you gotta apologize for being who you were.
[Kagari had walked into the MWPSB with a giant chip on his shoulder, and Kogami had surprised him. He'd been an Inspector too, once, but he knew how to set Kagari at ease, how to relate to him. They had been equals, for the time Kagari had known him. With Gino, it already seems like he's going to carry around their former difference in power like his own personal sin to bear.]
Anyway. You know what I meant. [He'd never experience the life of a "normal person", after all, no matter how easy Akane tried to make things on them.] But I always had a fun time being an Enforcer, so yeah, I'm staying on board.
no subject
Hindsight was a cruel mistress. ]
No, I'd been mistaken. I never want to be so short-sighted again. [ Not when– no, he won't think about that here. ]
A fun time? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you enjoy the adrenaline rush.
no subject
So what do you want from me? To hate you? Or for this to be a whole Thing where I gotta keep telling you we're square? You wanna make shit up to me? Don't talk to me with all this pity. Ohhh, I'm so sorry I was shitty to you and made your life hard? You and the rest of Japan. Get over it.
[......well, if Gino expected to get bitched at, he. finally got it? there's only so much charitable Kagari's got in him.]