"Oh, this will be your introduction to them? Well, people don't really use physical manuals anymore, they look it up online... try asking some of the other guys at the range, they'll be happy to teach you!"

"Online manuals are great. Lemme just write down the model numbers so I can look 'em up, and can I rent a cleaning kit for each, please? Wanna practice. I just ordered one of the shotgun, and I'm eventually going to order the pistol too, so I wanna be up on all the cleaning and safety stuff."

"Yes, sure, I'll just give you one." She takes quick steps to a back room before returning with a cleaning kit.

Okay, she'll find a table and spread her rented guns and cleaning kits out on it, smiling at Sydney. "Maybe it's a bit obsessive of me, but I feel better if I know the mechanisms and clean it myself first, plus this is good practice for when mine shows up. Sorry if this isn't exactly riveting to watch, though."

While she talks, she pulls up the manual for the shotgun on her phone and starts carefully disassembling it and cleaning each piece. There's something soothing about it, honestly.

Sydney flinches back a bit. "I think they're beautiful tools, and they protect my freedoms and things, but you get a bit paranoid that something goes wrong, you know?"

"And that's why I clean 'em! If I've checked every mechanism myself, then I have better reason to trust it won't misfire or jam."

"Well yes if that's how they work!"

"Why wouldn't cleaning and maintenance improving things be how they work?"

She finds this very confusing.

"Yes improving how they work to shoot someone!" Sydney is clearly getting nervous.

Okay, parts down, turn fully to Sydney. "Do you need a hug?"

"It's not that scary, it's just..." She strokes her chin. "I said that 'take an oath' thing, right? Because I have a friend who I have known since I was 4 who has pledged to protect me and everyone else, and practiced self-defense, other-defense, healthy-body-building, individual rights protection and all the other stuff. And we sort of try to take guns out of society, outside of that. So there aren't any accidents or a lot of guns around for bad people to get, so they're really... shocking for me to see."

She rubs the back of her head sheepishly a bit. "Yeah, that's understandable. Intellectually, I'm happy about that lack of guns, even, I just spent a long time in a world where that safety wasn't available, and tools like these were expensive, and there was no basic income. Does it help if I tell you that I'm never gonna draw one outside of range time unless someone's actively trying to harm me or someone I love, and I promise I'll give them all the warnings and chances to put down their own weapon that I safely can?"

"A tiny bit!" she exhales. "I bet you can, like. Make something cool that makes it easy to have it on you without making it obvious to everyone else."

"Ooh, yeah. We had concealed carry holsters back on Earth, those shouldn't be hard to reproduce, and adapt to my outfits. Y'think that's the angle I should go with?"

"I uh... think that'd be cool. Like how fursuits are cool, if you know what those are."

She smiles at tilts her head a bit. "It's still so surprising to hear little things like that, signs of how much better thomassia is that fursuits get to be cool rather than something most people are dumb and nasty about if they find out."

"I have one myself, actually! It's got, like ventilation fans and a support exoskeleton and lenses, cool things like that."

"That's so awesome. What kinda animal?" She bounces a little in her seat.

"Cat! But it's really stylized."

"Oooh. I wanna see it sometime!"

"I wanna show it to you! Maybe you can come see my place some day?"

"I'd love to!" Happy wiggles. "Yay activities with new friend."

She resumes cleaning the guns and then reassembling them, still wiggling a bit. "I'm really glad you came last night. I'm glad I've got such great neighbors, and I get to get to know you."

"Glad to meet you! Now, I don't think guns are very fun so I'll be on my way home. Do you want me to pick you up after, or are you happy getting home by yourself?"

"I'll be okay, I think. Just don't wanna leave you to haul the safe. Will it be okay in the car until I get back, or can I rent one of the little robots to bring it up from the car to my door, or something?"

"It'll be okay in the car, tell me when you're back so I can help you get it. It's too big for any of the robots we have to move things around now."