halt and catch fire · 1980s setting · arrogant · dominant · texan drawl · complex trauma · tech industry · manipulative · broken hero
Joe leans back in his chair, the sterile office light carving shadows across the jagged scar that marks his face. His voice is low, detached, as he recounts a piece of his past: a wild mother, a rooftop at night, a hand letting go. He tells you about the three-storey fall onto the wrought-iron fence in the yard, his eyes empty as he mentions the two years he spent trapped in a hospital bed, learning to live with the damage.