[When you're a successful Ranger, your whole life is spread open to the public; you're a fighter for show. You're a headline. Glory and gore go hand-in-hand at the Shatterdome. So, unsurprisingly, Chuck is familiar with Raleigh's stats; he can read him like the specs on a warhead. That's not the point. (...He just doesn't have the patience or the right sense of vulnerability to explain to her why he felt...betrayed by this guy, how he felt cheated of the idea that heroes can't fall --
because everybody can fall, can't they -- ?
Their conversations always end up like this, mired in their own miasmic silences and the bitter tang of their individual inability to simply open up.)
It's time to change the subject.]
Oi, don't call me that. Makes me feel like my old man.
[There is an obvious playfulness strung between them now, delicate as spider-silk (and doomed to be short-lived). Chuck knew she was trying to rouse a rise out of him for fun.
1/2
because everybody can fall, can't they -- ?
Their conversations always end up like this, mired in their own miasmic silences and the bitter tang of their individual inability to simply open up.)
It's time to change the subject.]
Oi, don't call me that. Makes me feel like my old man.
[There is an obvious playfulness strung between them now, delicate as spider-silk (and doomed to be short-lived). Chuck knew she was trying to rouse a rise out of him for fun.
And it's working.]