Curate, connect, and discover
I have this idea that Rooster was raised by his mom (and Maverick) with the sort-of-old-fashioned, sort-of-nice manners of “you tone down the swearing when there are women around”. (It may really be something he got more from Mav than Carole)
It occasionally manifests as a little voice in his head telling him to not swear (or apologize when he swears) in front of Phoenix, but he knows she’d hate it if he did that. So he ignores the voice.
And then one day during training, while he and Phoenix and Bob and maybe a couple others are sitting around, he cusses at something. And he gets that impulse. Only this time, he doesn’t completely ignore it. He channels it sideways into a little joke, and says “Apologies, Bob.”
And Bob – who still hasn’t quite found his footing in the group, still doesn’t talk much – inclines his head graciously, and smiles a small smile at being included in Rooster’s dumb joke.
So Rooster starts doing it on purpose.
And then Phoenix picks it up, and then Fanboy, and Payback, and then everyone else, until by the end of the week when someone hits the simulated mountain, on the radio you’ll hear stuff like “goddamn sonovabitch sorry Bob fucking shit”