He shrugs back. "I ain't working at any particular level. We're both dealing with life and death. I just make it a point to seek it out, because some part of me thinks I know best."

Dan isn't being self-deprecating; one doesn't go into a career thrusting themselves into dangerous situations if they don't believe, on some level, that they'll be better at it than the person next to them. Dan knows he's good at his work, and he believes his point-of-view would be sorely lacking in his field without him.

"It's hard work not to build up a callus. That's why I reckon mercy ain't usually an act of cowardice. It takes so much work to stay gentle." Not even just against internal forces; there's a lot of pressure from peers to lean into ruthlessness as well. Violence ratchets upwards. People who commit violent acts yearn for those around them to behave violently as well, as if there's absolution in numbers. I'm not that bad, look at the guy next to me, look at this mob I surround myself with. "People are more afeared of hard work than they are anything else."

He smirks and blows a smoke circle into the air, then shoots another through it, twirling his cigarette between his fingers like a tiny baton even as it leaves ash on his knuckles.