OOC: application for absolute_hold
Character: Kyle Reese
Series: Terminator
Timeline: The Terminator/Terminator Salvation, using the Salvation continuity. He's initially entering the game as just pre-T1, but I included a complete bio and dual samples to reflect the character at both ages.
Wiki Us a Bio/History: TOW and Terminator Wiki
Elaborate, if necessary:
There are differences between the original timeline as established in The Terminator (1984) and the latest one in Salvation (2009). The TV series, "Chronicles", put an end to the "stable time loop" idea and asserted that a) the timeline is constantly in flux, and b) every change to the timeline can potentially create a derivative loop. However, as it's a major plot point in Salvation that the events of T1 are carried off as intended, it's safe to speculate that they are mostly unchanged by these alterations. What follows below represents a character background which synthesizes the two canons in a way that best matches the Salvation continuity.
Childhood:
Kyle Reese was born in 2002, surviving Judgment Day along with his father, who trained him to fight and led the Los Angeles Resistance Cell (undermanned as they were). His father later died, leaving an adolescent Kyle alone to defend the cell against Skynet forces. For a time, Kyle and a mute girl named Star were able to defend themselves and survive in the ruins of Los Angeles, basing themselves out of the Griffith Observatory and staging small guerilla operations against the machines. The two sustained themselves on the rumors of the real Resistance fighting elsewhere in the country, which Kyle aspired to one day join.
Marcus and the Resistance:
In 2018, when Kyle is 16, he encounters a disoriented experimental Skynet cyborg, Marcus Wright, who presents himself as (and believes himself to be) human. After initial mistrust, the two start to bond: Marcus teaches him techniques for close-quarters combat, fixes a radio Kyle's father never managed to repair, and defends the boy and Star against attackers. The next morning, after the three had spent a night together, Marcus announces his intentions to strike off on his own and leave the kids to fend for themselves; Kyle is far more visibly upset than you'd expect given the short time the man has known them, indicating a quick attachment. Ultimately, the three end up sticking together, with Marcus serving as a protector. When Kyle and Star are kidnapped by a Skynet harvester to be placed in the machines' work camps, Marcus heads after them.
In captivity, Kyle is a lone voice of reason amidst a panicking group of civilians. He urges those around them to stay calm, to "stay alive" in both mind in heart. His steady words are the result not only of lessons from the men who have mentored him --Marcus, his father, and distantly John Connor-- but his first-hand experience as a would-be leader, caring for a lost child (and amnesiac cyborg) in one hell of a hostile post-apocalyptic world.
At the work camp, Kyle is branded with a serial number and sent through for processing, when one of the machines recognizes him and sequesters him from the others, knowing the prophecy that he will one day time travel to thwart Skynet's plans in 1984.
Then Connor shows up and blows up a lot of things.
In rescuing Kyle from the facility, Connor gives Kyle his name, knowing in advance who Reese is and what he means for the future. The name does the trick: upon hearing it, Kyle's face melts into awe and admiration. Connor now has a lifelong devotee.
The 132nd and Recon/Security:
The attack on Skynet Central's main work camp is successful, in the general sense that no time paradoxes were created. Kyle survives intact, Connor survives with the help of a heart transplant. There is the minor detail that Marcus is the donor, of course, and so after a scant four days of knowing him, Kyle is forced to witness his friend give up his life to give the Resistance the leader it needs. Before the operation, on Connor's urging, Marcus places Connor's coat on Kyle's shoulders-- a gesture at once uniting the three men, and signalling Kyle's promotion into the Resistance proper.
Following Marcus's death, Kyle Reese trains and serves with the Resistance as Connor intended for him. In 2021, at the age of 19, Reese is transferred to the 132nd Special Forces Unit under Major General Justin Perry, playing a direct role in many of the Resistance's important operations. In 2027, Reese is promoted to Sergeant and transferred to Recon/Security at Edwards Air Force Base, the Resistance's headquarters led by Connor himself.
Building on a (ironically reversed) father-son relationship established when Reese was a teenager, the two grow close. Reese, who has always admired Connor as a hero, quickly becomes one of his most dedicated followers-- a true believer of the highest order. In one of their meetings, Connor gives Reese a photo of his mother, Sarah Connor, taken in 1984. Reese, who had grown up knowing Sarah Connor as a Virgin Mary figure, a 'legend' who prepared the savior of mankind, grows enamored with the woman in the photograph. Studying her becomes one of his few pleasures, a lone comfort in a wartorn wasteland where any of his comrades might be shot down beside him at any time.
At some point, his nigh-religious reverence for John and Sarah Connor turns romantic. Reese, who has avoided close relationships with women (and probably men) up to this point, immerses himself into the small window of a world shown in Sarah's photograph-- to the extent that he's flat out devastated that the photo is destroyed during an assault on the Edwards base. The artifact, precious in and of itself in a world like Reese's, was a treasure that connected him to John and Sarah Connor both.
In 2029, when the Resistance finds Skynet has developed a time displacement device intent to send a Terminator in the past, Reese volunteers to be sent after it. He knows it's a one-way trip-- he knows that his death is almost assured, and that he can't hope to undo the course of history, just prevent its further alteration. When Sarah asks him why he did it, he gives two answers: to meet her, the 'legend,' and because he loves her.
It's nothing so simple, of course. What he loves are Connor's stories of his mother, and Connor himself, the man Sarah is author to. But he's a believer, and from Reese's perspective, they're all the same thing. When he arrives in 1984, he treats Sarah callously more than lovingly, so used to the hard-edged survivalist mode in which he's lived since Judgment Day, but in time he softens to her and appreciates her for what she is: still an innocent, like some genderswapped version of his hero ("he has your eyes!" he exclaims ever so excitedly) if the war had never touched him. He's in love with her as something to care for, as something that will grow, as his raison d'etre. And he'll protect her endlessly, just as Connor and Marcus once protected him.
Personality:
As both a teenager and a man in his late 20s, Kyle Reese is an intense, quick-witted tactician with the combat skills to match (though, obviously, as a half-starved teenager he's not quite so formidable physically). He has a trademark hawk-eyed stare and a tendency to show his teeth when he speaks, and he rarely smiles or gentles toward anyone.
As a younger man, Kyle is far more impulsive. Reese at both ages has a temper that can be quickly lost against the stubborn, but the younger Kyle is far more likely to bite off more than he can chew in a person-to-person confrontation. He has the social skills you'd expect from someone coming from a lifetime of war fighting a relentless enemy: his manner of speech is generally direct and to the point; he immediately distrusts unknown variables (and yet, seems quite used to amnesiacs wanting to know what year it is); and he doesn't like to admit weakness.
As a teenager, he's slightly more willing to express gratitude to those that help him. As an adult, well. He's usually the one picking up the slack for everyone else. Even if he did volunteer, Reese would never have been sent back in time to save Sarah if he hadn't been one of Connor's most trusted and valuable men.
One interesting note of difference between the younger and older versions is that as a teenager Kyle seems far more inclined to play leader, offering up inspiring words and doing his best to guide others. As an adult time-traveling to the past, he is, if anything, tragically uncharismatic. He looks and acts just as much the creeper that people in 1984 think he is. It's possible that years of harsh physical and mental punishment, together with being around a man like Connor who's already far more gifted with words, drove the oratory instinct right out of him. He's still an officer, but he's far from the inspirational leader that Connor is. (And he's cool with that.)
Abilities:
Reese is born-and-bred human, but at both ages (16 and 27) he's a fierce, battle-hardened warrior with sharpshooter accuracy, Olympiad endurance and surprising upper body strength.
Teenager: Malnourished and bony, 16-year-old Kyle relies largely on speed, accuracy and cunning. He's decent with traps, machines and electronics but can give up on projects which elude him.
Adult: Owing to his time spent in the San Francisco work camp and his many years served on the Resistance front lines, Sgt. Reese has high pain tolerance and can withstand many forms of physical punishment. (His line, "pain can be controlled," is similar to remarks made by POWs who survived torture.) He's also far more gifted with machines, electronics, and weaponry than his teenaged self. At the end of the day, however, he's nothing spectacular against a superhuman opponent... except for his insane, crazy-man persistence, tactical genius and stealth, basically his teenage self kicked up about a dozen notches.
Above all else, as an adult Reese's belief in the Cause is what keeps him going. He will put up with any amount of punishment, match any foe, and go up against ludicrously bad odds in the name of his mission and the man who assigned him. In his very own words, Connor is a man he would die for. Belief, as Joss Whedon teaches us, is a very powerful force.
What are they bringing to Nuadoria?:
Teenager:
-Shotgun with 6 shells.
-6 additional shells.
-Clothes on his back.
Adult:
-1 set Special Forces BDUs.
-1 standard-issue twist-lamp.
-1 standard-issue radio and headset.
-Plasma rifle with two spare fuel cell mags.
-1 magnum with two spare clips.
-1 plasma grenade.
-1 standard-issue combat and utility knife.
-1 set of binoculars with digital zoom.
Third-Person Sample:
As Kyle:
Water was a precious resource in LA. Sooner or later he and Star were going to have to relocate anyway: it didn't rain enough here, and even if the rain couldn't be counted on anywhere in this country, it had to be better than this city. Every month the desert was reclaiming it bit by bit, leaving them with less and less. Man-made reservoirs, of course, had gone stagnant years ago. And condensation? Forget about it, man.
But he needed to wash his face that morning, and get some of the dirt and grease out of his hair. It was kind of selfish, but hey, use it or lose it. That Marcus character was already up working on the vehicles out by the cliffs, and if they could seriously get one of those working, it'd be out with the clothes on their back. Skynet had too many drones in the hills to pack a lunch and a canteen. They'd be taking the ammo, period.
...That guy was so weird. You got trauma victims like him now and then; people stumbling in out of the desert ranting and raving about the Apocalypse or their wife dying yesterday when the bombs had killed her seven years ago. As far as Kyle could tell, the only thing different about this one was he was surprisingly coherent. Talked in complete sentences, made sense sometimes, had his hand-eye coordination down. Really, kind of a shame about the crazy.
But maybe the weirdest thing was that he'd given that coat of his up, not to Kyle when he'd demanded it, but to Star to keep her warm when the fire'd gone out. And he'd just sat there at the edge of their little circle in the dark, watching them go to sleep.
Which usually spelled a psycho who'd rob them first chance he got, if he stopped there. But he hadn't touched a thing. Kyle'd woken up to the smell of him frying freshly-poached wildcat over a restocked fire.
Seriously, shame about the crazy. How often did a nutcase wander in out of the desert and didn't even try to rape them, just made 'em breakfast?
Kyle felt a small tug at the cuff of his vest. He glanced down to see Star gazing up at him with that look that said she needed to go to the bathroom.
"Okay," he said, picking her up. Then a bath, he thought. Gotta use up this water anyway.
As Sergeant Reese:
He knew, even seeing Bynes' body out of the corner of his eye that she had swung too high, too long. The trawler's cameras caught her outline against the rubble and the pulse cannon locked on a second later.
She burned so fast, so hot, she left burn marks against his side. He only stopped breathing, hooded gaze cast toward the shadows left by the fire.
One second, two. The wheels ground through the shattered bones of bodies they'd unearthed, searching for something, god knows what. Burnt flesh and hair finally reached his nose through the choke of gasoline.
She'd had a family. Husband and a niece they'd raised like a daughter. She'd been his patrol partner for eight months running and she'd burnt as senselessly as trash, obliterated into leaves and dust.
He did not gag. His mouth did not even move. Reese filed it away and used the grinding of the trawler's treads to head further down the shadow of the trench.
'Is there anything you ever wanted to ask me?' Connor had said that morning before the briefing.
'No.'
'Nothing.'
'Nothing that wasn't self-evident. You don't have to worry about me, John. There's nothing left for them to break.'
Connor's expression hadn't flickered, but something in his eyes told Reese he knew he was a liar. How did the man always seem to anticipate him, read him like a book one chapter ahead? God, the books Connor had read.
'It's making them distrust you,' Connor explained, speaking of the rest of Recon. 'You do the best damn job anyone could expect but they look at you and they see you've got a death counter over every one of their heads.'
Kyle had stared at him, startled. It was close to the truth, but so what? Every vet knew his life expectancy.
'Every man and woman out there,' he'd told Connor severely, 'knows what they're fighting and dying for. They've known it since they were born.'
He hadn't wept for anyone since he'd watched a man give up his heart.
First-Person Sample:
As Kyle:
oo1 - [ accidental voice ]
[ Rough nails scrape along the edges of the palm device, looking for purchase, some way to open it up. Those fingers are surprised: technology this good doesn't come this way, doesn't look like this.
The scraping stops, the palm device slipping away from the headset mic as it hits pavement with a crack. ]
--Jesus. Okay. Let's try that again...
As Sergeant Reese:
oo1 - [ very goddamn intentional voice ]
[ An elevated voice, something half-wild but very, very focused. ]
What city is this? [ pause. ] What year is it?
Series: Terminator
Timeline: The Terminator/Terminator Salvation, using the Salvation continuity. He's initially entering the game as just pre-T1, but I included a complete bio and dual samples to reflect the character at both ages.
Wiki Us a Bio/History: TOW and Terminator Wiki
Elaborate, if necessary:
There are differences between the original timeline as established in The Terminator (1984) and the latest one in Salvation (2009). The TV series, "Chronicles", put an end to the "stable time loop" idea and asserted that a) the timeline is constantly in flux, and b) every change to the timeline can potentially create a derivative loop. However, as it's a major plot point in Salvation that the events of T1 are carried off as intended, it's safe to speculate that they are mostly unchanged by these alterations. What follows below represents a character background which synthesizes the two canons in a way that best matches the Salvation continuity.
Childhood:
Kyle Reese was born in 2002, surviving Judgment Day along with his father, who trained him to fight and led the Los Angeles Resistance Cell (undermanned as they were). His father later died, leaving an adolescent Kyle alone to defend the cell against Skynet forces. For a time, Kyle and a mute girl named Star were able to defend themselves and survive in the ruins of Los Angeles, basing themselves out of the Griffith Observatory and staging small guerilla operations against the machines. The two sustained themselves on the rumors of the real Resistance fighting elsewhere in the country, which Kyle aspired to one day join.
Marcus and the Resistance:
In 2018, when Kyle is 16, he encounters a disoriented experimental Skynet cyborg, Marcus Wright, who presents himself as (and believes himself to be) human. After initial mistrust, the two start to bond: Marcus teaches him techniques for close-quarters combat, fixes a radio Kyle's father never managed to repair, and defends the boy and Star against attackers. The next morning, after the three had spent a night together, Marcus announces his intentions to strike off on his own and leave the kids to fend for themselves; Kyle is far more visibly upset than you'd expect given the short time the man has known them, indicating a quick attachment. Ultimately, the three end up sticking together, with Marcus serving as a protector. When Kyle and Star are kidnapped by a Skynet harvester to be placed in the machines' work camps, Marcus heads after them.
In captivity, Kyle is a lone voice of reason amidst a panicking group of civilians. He urges those around them to stay calm, to "stay alive" in both mind in heart. His steady words are the result not only of lessons from the men who have mentored him --Marcus, his father, and distantly John Connor-- but his first-hand experience as a would-be leader, caring for a lost child (and amnesiac cyborg) in one hell of a hostile post-apocalyptic world.
At the work camp, Kyle is branded with a serial number and sent through for processing, when one of the machines recognizes him and sequesters him from the others, knowing the prophecy that he will one day time travel to thwart Skynet's plans in 1984.
Then Connor shows up and blows up a lot of things.
In rescuing Kyle from the facility, Connor gives Kyle his name, knowing in advance who Reese is and what he means for the future. The name does the trick: upon hearing it, Kyle's face melts into awe and admiration. Connor now has a lifelong devotee.
The 132nd and Recon/Security:
The attack on Skynet Central's main work camp is successful, in the general sense that no time paradoxes were created. Kyle survives intact, Connor survives with the help of a heart transplant. There is the minor detail that Marcus is the donor, of course, and so after a scant four days of knowing him, Kyle is forced to witness his friend give up his life to give the Resistance the leader it needs. Before the operation, on Connor's urging, Marcus places Connor's coat on Kyle's shoulders-- a gesture at once uniting the three men, and signalling Kyle's promotion into the Resistance proper.
Following Marcus's death, Kyle Reese trains and serves with the Resistance as Connor intended for him. In 2021, at the age of 19, Reese is transferred to the 132nd Special Forces Unit under Major General Justin Perry, playing a direct role in many of the Resistance's important operations. In 2027, Reese is promoted to Sergeant and transferred to Recon/Security at Edwards Air Force Base, the Resistance's headquarters led by Connor himself.
Building on a (ironically reversed) father-son relationship established when Reese was a teenager, the two grow close. Reese, who has always admired Connor as a hero, quickly becomes one of his most dedicated followers-- a true believer of the highest order. In one of their meetings, Connor gives Reese a photo of his mother, Sarah Connor, taken in 1984. Reese, who had grown up knowing Sarah Connor as a Virgin Mary figure, a 'legend' who prepared the savior of mankind, grows enamored with the woman in the photograph. Studying her becomes one of his few pleasures, a lone comfort in a wartorn wasteland where any of his comrades might be shot down beside him at any time.
At some point, his nigh-religious reverence for John and Sarah Connor turns romantic. Reese, who has avoided close relationships with women (and probably men) up to this point, immerses himself into the small window of a world shown in Sarah's photograph-- to the extent that he's flat out devastated that the photo is destroyed during an assault on the Edwards base. The artifact, precious in and of itself in a world like Reese's, was a treasure that connected him to John and Sarah Connor both.
In 2029, when the Resistance finds Skynet has developed a time displacement device intent to send a Terminator in the past, Reese volunteers to be sent after it. He knows it's a one-way trip-- he knows that his death is almost assured, and that he can't hope to undo the course of history, just prevent its further alteration. When Sarah asks him why he did it, he gives two answers: to meet her, the 'legend,' and because he loves her.
It's nothing so simple, of course. What he loves are Connor's stories of his mother, and Connor himself, the man Sarah is author to. But he's a believer, and from Reese's perspective, they're all the same thing. When he arrives in 1984, he treats Sarah callously more than lovingly, so used to the hard-edged survivalist mode in which he's lived since Judgment Day, but in time he softens to her and appreciates her for what she is: still an innocent, like some genderswapped version of his hero ("he has your eyes!" he exclaims ever so excitedly) if the war had never touched him. He's in love with her as something to care for, as something that will grow, as his raison d'etre. And he'll protect her endlessly, just as Connor and Marcus once protected him.
Personality:
As both a teenager and a man in his late 20s, Kyle Reese is an intense, quick-witted tactician with the combat skills to match (though, obviously, as a half-starved teenager he's not quite so formidable physically). He has a trademark hawk-eyed stare and a tendency to show his teeth when he speaks, and he rarely smiles or gentles toward anyone.
As a younger man, Kyle is far more impulsive. Reese at both ages has a temper that can be quickly lost against the stubborn, but the younger Kyle is far more likely to bite off more than he can chew in a person-to-person confrontation. He has the social skills you'd expect from someone coming from a lifetime of war fighting a relentless enemy: his manner of speech is generally direct and to the point; he immediately distrusts unknown variables (and yet, seems quite used to amnesiacs wanting to know what year it is); and he doesn't like to admit weakness.
As a teenager, he's slightly more willing to express gratitude to those that help him. As an adult, well. He's usually the one picking up the slack for everyone else. Even if he did volunteer, Reese would never have been sent back in time to save Sarah if he hadn't been one of Connor's most trusted and valuable men.
One interesting note of difference between the younger and older versions is that as a teenager Kyle seems far more inclined to play leader, offering up inspiring words and doing his best to guide others. As an adult time-traveling to the past, he is, if anything, tragically uncharismatic. He looks and acts just as much the creeper that people in 1984 think he is. It's possible that years of harsh physical and mental punishment, together with being around a man like Connor who's already far more gifted with words, drove the oratory instinct right out of him. He's still an officer, but he's far from the inspirational leader that Connor is. (And he's cool with that.)
Abilities:
Reese is born-and-bred human, but at both ages (16 and 27) he's a fierce, battle-hardened warrior with sharpshooter accuracy, Olympiad endurance and surprising upper body strength.
Teenager: Malnourished and bony, 16-year-old Kyle relies largely on speed, accuracy and cunning. He's decent with traps, machines and electronics but can give up on projects which elude him.
Adult: Owing to his time spent in the San Francisco work camp and his many years served on the Resistance front lines, Sgt. Reese has high pain tolerance and can withstand many forms of physical punishment. (His line, "pain can be controlled," is similar to remarks made by POWs who survived torture.) He's also far more gifted with machines, electronics, and weaponry than his teenaged self. At the end of the day, however, he's nothing spectacular against a superhuman opponent... except for his insane, crazy-man persistence, tactical genius and stealth, basically his teenage self kicked up about a dozen notches.
Above all else, as an adult Reese's belief in the Cause is what keeps him going. He will put up with any amount of punishment, match any foe, and go up against ludicrously bad odds in the name of his mission and the man who assigned him. In his very own words, Connor is a man he would die for. Belief, as Joss Whedon teaches us, is a very powerful force.
What are they bringing to Nuadoria?:
Teenager:
-Shotgun with 6 shells.
-6 additional shells.
-Clothes on his back.
Adult:
-1 set Special Forces BDUs.
-1 standard-issue twist-lamp.
-1 standard-issue radio and headset.
-Plasma rifle with two spare fuel cell mags.
-1 magnum with two spare clips.
-1 plasma grenade.
-1 standard-issue combat and utility knife.
-1 set of binoculars with digital zoom.
Third-Person Sample:
As Kyle:
Water was a precious resource in LA. Sooner or later he and Star were going to have to relocate anyway: it didn't rain enough here, and even if the rain couldn't be counted on anywhere in this country, it had to be better than this city. Every month the desert was reclaiming it bit by bit, leaving them with less and less. Man-made reservoirs, of course, had gone stagnant years ago. And condensation? Forget about it, man.
But he needed to wash his face that morning, and get some of the dirt and grease out of his hair. It was kind of selfish, but hey, use it or lose it. That Marcus character was already up working on the vehicles out by the cliffs, and if they could seriously get one of those working, it'd be out with the clothes on their back. Skynet had too many drones in the hills to pack a lunch and a canteen. They'd be taking the ammo, period.
...That guy was so weird. You got trauma victims like him now and then; people stumbling in out of the desert ranting and raving about the Apocalypse or their wife dying yesterday when the bombs had killed her seven years ago. As far as Kyle could tell, the only thing different about this one was he was surprisingly coherent. Talked in complete sentences, made sense sometimes, had his hand-eye coordination down. Really, kind of a shame about the crazy.
But maybe the weirdest thing was that he'd given that coat of his up, not to Kyle when he'd demanded it, but to Star to keep her warm when the fire'd gone out. And he'd just sat there at the edge of their little circle in the dark, watching them go to sleep.
Which usually spelled a psycho who'd rob them first chance he got, if he stopped there. But he hadn't touched a thing. Kyle'd woken up to the smell of him frying freshly-poached wildcat over a restocked fire.
Seriously, shame about the crazy. How often did a nutcase wander in out of the desert and didn't even try to rape them, just made 'em breakfast?
Kyle felt a small tug at the cuff of his vest. He glanced down to see Star gazing up at him with that look that said she needed to go to the bathroom.
"Okay," he said, picking her up. Then a bath, he thought. Gotta use up this water anyway.
As Sergeant Reese:
He knew, even seeing Bynes' body out of the corner of his eye that she had swung too high, too long. The trawler's cameras caught her outline against the rubble and the pulse cannon locked on a second later.
She burned so fast, so hot, she left burn marks against his side. He only stopped breathing, hooded gaze cast toward the shadows left by the fire.
One second, two. The wheels ground through the shattered bones of bodies they'd unearthed, searching for something, god knows what. Burnt flesh and hair finally reached his nose through the choke of gasoline.
She'd had a family. Husband and a niece they'd raised like a daughter. She'd been his patrol partner for eight months running and she'd burnt as senselessly as trash, obliterated into leaves and dust.
He did not gag. His mouth did not even move. Reese filed it away and used the grinding of the trawler's treads to head further down the shadow of the trench.
'Is there anything you ever wanted to ask me?' Connor had said that morning before the briefing.
'No.'
'Nothing.'
'Nothing that wasn't self-evident. You don't have to worry about me, John. There's nothing left for them to break.'
Connor's expression hadn't flickered, but something in his eyes told Reese he knew he was a liar. How did the man always seem to anticipate him, read him like a book one chapter ahead? God, the books Connor had read.
'It's making them distrust you,' Connor explained, speaking of the rest of Recon. 'You do the best damn job anyone could expect but they look at you and they see you've got a death counter over every one of their heads.'
Kyle had stared at him, startled. It was close to the truth, but so what? Every vet knew his life expectancy.
'Every man and woman out there,' he'd told Connor severely, 'knows what they're fighting and dying for. They've known it since they were born.'
He hadn't wept for anyone since he'd watched a man give up his heart.
First-Person Sample:
As Kyle:
oo1 - [ accidental voice ]
[ Rough nails scrape along the edges of the palm device, looking for purchase, some way to open it up. Those fingers are surprised: technology this good doesn't come this way, doesn't look like this.
The scraping stops, the palm device slipping away from the headset mic as it hits pavement with a crack. ]
--Jesus. Okay. Let's try that again...
As Sergeant Reese:
oo1 - [ very goddamn intentional voice ]
[ An elevated voice, something half-wild but very, very focused. ]
What city is this? [ pause. ] What year is it?