"You're not," he admitted, eyes distant, "but most people who ask have an agenda, so sometimes I'm not terribly interested in going into it."
He pulled up the glass of water.
"Project Rebirth? Doctor Erskine's formula? That's tied up with the war in a lot of ways, and in other ways, it didn't matter one bit. Because it had to do with the guy I was then and the guy I felt like I needed to be to do my part."
He looked over at Adam.
"I'm gonna assume," and his Brooklyn accent started to come out stronger as he kept talking, "that you know what it was like back in the 40's. I was in an art class when Pearl Harbor got bombed and I stormed right out to try and sign up. I saw a dozen guys I knew sign up and some of them, we got word they weren't comin' back. But for me, that was all the reason.
"I couldn't just sit at home and collect scrap, do my part on the homefront. Because the homefront wasn't losin' bodies. The front lines were. And every letter we got back in the neighborhood was another gun that wasn't gettin' fired, another person who could be that tipping point between losin' and winnin'. And as far as I was concerned, we couldn't lose. Not cause..." he gestured to himself with a crooked smile, "not because bein' on the right side means you're gonna win. I know that lesson better than most. But we couldn't lose because each of those guys gave their lives for something. And if we lost, all of that... the bullies would win and the world'd change for the worse in a lot of ways."
no subject
He pulled up the glass of water.
"Project Rebirth? Doctor Erskine's formula? That's tied up with the war in a lot of ways, and in other ways, it didn't matter one bit. Because it had to do with the guy I was then and the guy I felt like I needed to be to do my part."
He looked over at Adam.
"I'm gonna assume," and his Brooklyn accent started to come out stronger as he kept talking, "that you know what it was like back in the 40's. I was in an art class when Pearl Harbor got bombed and I stormed right out to try and sign up. I saw a dozen guys I knew sign up and some of them, we got word they weren't comin' back. But for me, that was all the reason.
"I couldn't just sit at home and collect scrap, do my part on the homefront. Because the homefront wasn't losin' bodies. The front lines were. And every letter we got back in the neighborhood was another gun that wasn't gettin' fired, another person who could be that tipping point between losin' and winnin'. And as far as I was concerned, we couldn't lose. Not cause..." he gestured to himself with a crooked smile, "not because bein' on the right side means you're gonna win. I know that lesson better than most. But we couldn't lose because each of those guys gave their lives for something. And if we lost, all of that... the bullies would win and the world'd change for the worse in a lot of ways."