Nah, [ charles laughs and shakes his head, ] Not at all. Under different circumstances might have considered it, but — I've already got my eye on someone else, so...

[ so! anyway — he does mean it, peter being an incredible person, and definitely someone he's happy to call his friend, someone whose dedication and selflessness he already admires. ] ... Maybe. There's definitely some decent people out there. This place has proven that much.

[ because he's already met so many amazing people here — and yeah, maybe they're not all from the same world, but the fact they exist, out there in their own worlds... yeah. that's already good. ]

Mate, then you were raised by good people. [ said with soft sincerity; he'd know, after all, given how his own parents had been... hardly the best by any metric.

and he's so focused on their little talk that he doesn't even notice the arrow headed his way; when he does, he figures he can just phase out of the way... only for the arrow to thud into his side, the iron tip burrowing into him, tearing through his clothes, his now-corporeal flesh smoking as it embeds itself in between his ribs.

charles isn't even aware of the scream he lets out, too busy collapsing onto the ground in horrible pain. ]