[He leans, and watches the canister as it flies over his shoulder. It's more than a little satisfying to let it fall, in direct defiance to the relative sterility of the room otherwise.
Zack glances back up at Rin when he asks. "It's complicated," crosses his mind, given everything that's added up to this clusterfuck of an interrupting mission, but is it? "Sort of," seems to fall flat, and offer nothing of an explanation, however true it might be.
He's an "athlete" by virtue of boredom. SOLDIER had been there where nothing else had, aside from overly affectionate parents with nothing to offer other than platitudes of growing up to be whatever he wanted, contrasted with pleas for that "whatever" to stay closer to home. (Or not leave at all.) But heroic dreams don't stay home. Not if he ever wanted them to be more than that.
He feels awful about it sometimes: his parents weren't terrible, and if the worst thing he had to say about being back home was ennui to the point of tears, it could be worse. Was for other guys in the barracks if half of those stories had even a fraction of honesty to them. Restlessness just begets recklessness. Hope is the one assurance he still clings to, even now for all of the times it's proven foolhardy.
But if that's Rin's first assumption, Zack can only in turn assume he's asking out of experience. And it makes sense: Rin might lack the bulk that Zack is used to seeing in his peers, but he's definitely not lazy. His musculature is different, leaner, but it's not easy to ignore.]
Soldier, actually. [Athletic, yes. Professional context: wholly different.] Point me at a bad guy, I hit him until his falls down.
[If only it was still that simple. Fat lot of good that whole aim to protect has done anyone now.]
no subject
Zack glances back up at Rin when he asks. "It's complicated," crosses his mind, given everything that's added up to this clusterfuck of an interrupting mission, but is it? "Sort of," seems to fall flat, and offer nothing of an explanation, however true it might be.
He's an "athlete" by virtue of boredom. SOLDIER had been there where nothing else had, aside from overly affectionate parents with nothing to offer other than platitudes of growing up to be whatever he wanted, contrasted with pleas for that "whatever" to stay closer to home. (Or not leave at all.) But heroic dreams don't stay home. Not if he ever wanted them to be more than that.
He feels awful about it sometimes: his parents weren't terrible, and if the worst thing he had to say about being back home was ennui to the point of tears, it could be worse. Was for other guys in the barracks if half of those stories had even a fraction of honesty to them. Restlessness just begets recklessness. Hope is the one assurance he still clings to, even now for all of the times it's proven foolhardy.
But if that's Rin's first assumption, Zack can only in turn assume he's asking out of experience. And it makes sense: Rin might lack the bulk that Zack is used to seeing in his peers, but he's definitely not lazy. His musculature is different, leaner, but it's not easy to ignore.]
Soldier, actually. [Athletic, yes. Professional context: wholly different.] Point me at a bad guy, I hit him until his falls down.
[If only it was still that simple. Fat lot of good that whole aim to protect has done anyone now.]
You?