The thing is, Raleigh doesn't know Chuck. He doesn't know what makes him tick, what makes him angry, what makes him want to swing his fists or sit down and listen or plug into a Jaeger and kick kaiju ass; what Raleigh only truly knows about Chuck is that he's got a mean right hook and that he's arguably the best pilot to come out of the PPDC, barring Mako, and that's partly his bias talking when says that. Chuck isn't like Raleigh, doesn't have the same streak of casual insubordination in his veins, doesn't have the ache of a kaiju-free life to shadow most of his motivations in life.
When he thinks about it, Chuck has more in common with Mako than anyone else he knows. He knows this. So what is he doing asking Chuck questions he has no business asking him to?
(Because you care, despite better judgment. The words sound like Yancy.) ]
[ there's a change to the tonal quality, and maybe it's one becket started and maybe it isn't something either party is ready (willing) to define- but chuck echoes it the way he echoes everything else. there are rules to every universe, and of the equation for action to reaction- chuck has always known which of the two he represents. maybe the other pilot is trying to talk him through it, for both their sakes, but it isn't a motive he wants to take apart. it isn't something he wants to understand when it's so much easier to just be and do. chuck's mouth opens on reflex, to do as he's told-
but the syllable breaks off for a cacophony of sound. the wet splatter of flesh on steel and the ricochet of metal on metal. whatever chuck had been prepared to say is lost in what is undeniably an attack- punctuated by a sharp ] Son of a- [ before the feed cuts out ]
[ it's a stretch of several hours before the feed reconnects, and when it does- the relative silence in the background speaks to some semblance of safety. however momentary. chuck's voice is quieter, though whether the rough, weathered quality of his tone is from vocal rubbed raw or faded with disuse is anyone's guess. ]
[ For his part, there's some noise of activity going on in the background. He'd managed to hook up with some of the others from his residence floor, and the beeps and pneumatic clicks of the hologram voice-overs bounce around behind him.
The easy part is done. Now they have to clear out a chamber full of ugly assholes that Raleigh doesn't have the patience for. ]
You're alive. [ Raleigh answers with audible relief, though that amounts to only the smallest uptick in enthusiasm far as a guy like Raleigh would sound like to anyone else. Not for the first time, Raleigh wonders if they've all been brought back together, as a crew, just so they could get ripped apart piece by piece all over again. This whole space adventure certainly felt like the start of it, with hope motivating the downward spin into red-edged fear and paranoia. ] I got worried.
[ there's too much to chuck's response that's wry. if asked, the answer would be as blunt as it would be quick- if he'd outlived the breach, if he's here after delivering an ocean-clearing payload in the bottom of the pacific, he sure as hell isn't going out because of a few goddamn reanimated corpses.
something in his head has made the leap, turned the necromorphs into other because chuck can't look at them and know they were once people. because he's spent days taking them apart limb by limb. because he'd listened to alayne whisper into her communicator like she was as good as damned found already. because his old man and mori and becket are still out there somewhere when they should be together, a unit. ]
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(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
Asks? Pleads? What is he doing?
The thing is, Raleigh doesn't know Chuck. He doesn't know what makes him tick, what makes him angry, what makes him want to swing his fists or sit down and listen or plug into a Jaeger and kick kaiju ass; what Raleigh only truly knows about Chuck is that he's got a mean right hook and that he's arguably the best pilot to come out of the PPDC, barring Mako, and that's partly his bias talking when says that. Chuck isn't like Raleigh, doesn't have the same streak of casual insubordination in his veins, doesn't have the ache of a kaiju-free life to shadow most of his motivations in life.
When he thinks about it, Chuck has more in common with Mako than anyone else he knows. He knows this. So what is he doing asking Chuck questions he has no business asking him to?
(Because you care, despite better judgment. The words sound like Yancy.) ]
Or don't, your call.
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
[ there's a change to the tonal quality, and maybe it's one becket started and maybe it isn't something either party is ready (willing) to define- but chuck echoes it the way he echoes everything else. there are rules to every universe, and of the equation for action to reaction- chuck has always known which of the two he represents. maybe the other pilot is trying to talk him through it, for both their sakes, but it isn't a motive he wants to take apart. it isn't something he wants to understand when it's so much easier to just be and do. chuck's mouth opens on reflex, to do as he's told-
but the syllable breaks off for a cacophony of sound. the wet splatter of flesh on steel and the ricochet of metal on metal. whatever chuck had been prepared to say is lost in what is undeniably an attack- punctuated by a sharp ] Son of a- [ before the feed cuts out ]
(v : d 2 | perma-audio)
Broke the comm.
(v : d 2 | perma-audio)
The easy part is done. Now they have to clear out a chamber full of ugly assholes that Raleigh doesn't have the patience for. ]
You're alive. [ Raleigh answers with audible relief, though that amounts to only the smallest uptick in enthusiasm far as a guy like Raleigh would sound like to anyone else. Not for the first time, Raleigh wonders if they've all been brought back together, as a crew, just so they could get ripped apart piece by piece all over again. This whole space adventure certainly felt like the start of it, with hope motivating the downward spin into red-edged fear and paranoia. ] I got worried.
(v : d 2 | perma-audio)
[ there's too much to chuck's response that's wry. if asked, the answer would be as blunt as it would be quick- if he'd outlived the breach, if he's here after delivering an ocean-clearing payload in the bottom of the pacific, he sure as hell isn't going out because of a few goddamn reanimated corpses.
something in his head has made the leap, turned the necromorphs into other because chuck can't look at them and know they were once people. because he's spent days taking them apart limb by limb. because he'd listened to alayne whisper into her communicator like she was as good as damned found already. because his old man and mori and becket are still out there somewhere when they should be together, a unit. ]
Mori's all green last check.