STROKER FREAKS people out. It’s necessary to infiltrate a wall of menace to see he started out as a nice rural Oklahoma church kid. Being hyper aware of surroundings, suspicious that the mundane may conceal furtive assassins or maiming booby traps is second nature to him. He checks a room as if waving a hand near a burner to see if the stove is hot. After a run in with a trip wire long ago, he won’t get burned again.

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