[Then you've never seen it, he thinks, quietly, remembering dust and storms and hail, the taste of blood in his mouth. Or watched those who get struck by the shards. The ring was a calling, but they all knew: you never left the Corps. You died in its service, and you were lucky, it'd be quick. There was no other end to the story.]
[Jim's world, and Pike's too, was so much brighter. Space was promise and hope. Less terror. Less fire. Kyle'd be jealous, and he had been, at first, listening to Jim talk about home, but more and more he found himself longing for his own, no matter that Jim said it'd made him sound macabre and defeatist at times. Kyle'd never held any illusions about what home was - a hard life and a war without end - but above everything, it was his.]
[Quietly, with a touch of wry humour:] Stick to the rules. [A beat.] Sir.
[Fine, he'll play along, accept in theory that the terms could be re-contextualised (God, he wants to dream freely), but in practice - you didn't win, you never could. You just had to be the last one standing.]
no subject
[Jim's world, and Pike's too, was so much brighter. Space was promise and hope. Less terror. Less fire. Kyle'd be jealous, and he had been, at first, listening to Jim talk about home, but more and more he found himself longing for his own, no matter that Jim said it'd made him sound macabre and defeatist at times. Kyle'd never held any illusions about what home was - a hard life and a war without end - but above everything, it was his.]
[Quietly, with a touch of wry humour:] Stick to the rules. [A beat.] Sir.
[Fine, he'll play along, accept in theory that the terms could be re-contextualised (God, he wants to dream freely), but in practice - you didn't win, you never could. You just had to be the last one standing.]