(no subject)
Verse: Canon
Comm: justprompts - Write about a time when you were terrified.
Word Count: 550
A time I was terrified. Oh, daily. You don't come into this line of work thinking it's all safety and easy escapes. Terror is something that lurks in everything we do - everything I do. It... festers. It attaches onto a person and it never lets go. That's fear, that's terror. Some men can overcome it. Some can't. In the end, we're all in the same boat together, trying not to capsize.
I don't let the men see my fear. You can't do that in this position. A good leader can strangle his emotions before they can override them; he can stand tall and unmoving in the face of adversity. He must be a pillar of strength or else his men shall lose their own courage and faith. I suppose people might see me as lacking fear entirely. It's for the best, that way. If I can remain unmoved, the men can draw their own strength off it.
...43 years is a long time to gather up fears and demons. I remember - not my earliest memory, but perhaps my most vivid - World War II. It was 1940, August, and I was ten years old. The Germans had begun their bombing of outer Great Britain: Kent, in particular. My father was fighting in Africa, leaving only my mother and I to tend to affairs. When the bombing began... that was the first time I knew what it was like to be terrified. The sounds of explosions, bombs whistling through the air, buildings destroyed. It isn't something that you forget, no matter how you try.
My father died a year after that, serving his country. Good man, so I was told. I remember a few things about him - he gave good advice, had a stern hand, but never struck in anger. What I can't remember is if I felt anything for him. I try not to think about that. A boy should feel something when their father dies, but I truthfully cannot recall. It's frightening by its own right.
I joined the army as soon as I graduated from school. I was hotheaded and hungry for battle then. I followed regulations but I always tried to find a way to get put on the front lines, put somewhere with bloodshed and death. War was in the blood, and I wanted to be in the thick of it as soon as it broke out. It was why I wanted to get into Intelligence. If anything broke out, they'd be the first ones there. It was stupid of me.
Times and people change. I'm a better man than I was then; stronger in convictions and morals. But just the same, I've got more fears and insecurities. I've fought against things that most people would never dream of - most of them, I can't even kill on my own. ...Immune to bullets, after all. Every time UNIT is set against something, there's that fear. The odds are always more towards the favour of my death. That next time might be the last.
...But no man would be the same without his fears. It's part of who we are. It's something fundamental to everyone, on Earth and beyond. A man without fear is a man on his way to the grave, and he'll most likely take others with him.
Comm: justprompts - Write about a time when you were terrified.
Word Count: 550
A time I was terrified. Oh, daily. You don't come into this line of work thinking it's all safety and easy escapes. Terror is something that lurks in everything we do - everything I do. It... festers. It attaches onto a person and it never lets go. That's fear, that's terror. Some men can overcome it. Some can't. In the end, we're all in the same boat together, trying not to capsize.
I don't let the men see my fear. You can't do that in this position. A good leader can strangle his emotions before they can override them; he can stand tall and unmoving in the face of adversity. He must be a pillar of strength or else his men shall lose their own courage and faith. I suppose people might see me as lacking fear entirely. It's for the best, that way. If I can remain unmoved, the men can draw their own strength off it.
...43 years is a long time to gather up fears and demons. I remember - not my earliest memory, but perhaps my most vivid - World War II. It was 1940, August, and I was ten years old. The Germans had begun their bombing of outer Great Britain: Kent, in particular. My father was fighting in Africa, leaving only my mother and I to tend to affairs. When the bombing began... that was the first time I knew what it was like to be terrified. The sounds of explosions, bombs whistling through the air, buildings destroyed. It isn't something that you forget, no matter how you try.
My father died a year after that, serving his country. Good man, so I was told. I remember a few things about him - he gave good advice, had a stern hand, but never struck in anger. What I can't remember is if I felt anything for him. I try not to think about that. A boy should feel something when their father dies, but I truthfully cannot recall. It's frightening by its own right.
I joined the army as soon as I graduated from school. I was hotheaded and hungry for battle then. I followed regulations but I always tried to find a way to get put on the front lines, put somewhere with bloodshed and death. War was in the blood, and I wanted to be in the thick of it as soon as it broke out. It was why I wanted to get into Intelligence. If anything broke out, they'd be the first ones there. It was stupid of me.
Times and people change. I'm a better man than I was then; stronger in convictions and morals. But just the same, I've got more fears and insecurities. I've fought against things that most people would never dream of - most of them, I can't even kill on my own. ...Immune to bullets, after all. Every time UNIT is set against something, there's that fear. The odds are always more towards the favour of my death. That next time might be the last.
...But no man would be the same without his fears. It's part of who we are. It's something fundamental to everyone, on Earth and beyond. A man without fear is a man on his way to the grave, and he'll most likely take others with him.