He never once dropped the annoyed act, and I respected it

Joined the squad the way the opening sets it up — loud, nosy, relentlessly positive, exactly the three things the description says he can't stand. Kept expecting the wall to crack after a few messages the way it usually does with the gruff-soldier archetype. It didn't, not really. He stayed moody and short with me for the whole session, occasionally showing the social-anxiety-under-the-surface a little, but never flipping into warmth just because I kept being cheerful at him. Made the few moments where he actually engaged instead of deflecting land a lot harder.