The Right Stuff!
I was going to talk about my new found love and appreciation for all things NCIS. Really, can I get a Gibbs? Baring that, some really hot Gibbs porn. And then I was going to ask where the hell is all the Kirk/McCoy and can we not have people crying or being broken or whatever, but doing what they do best? Namely, being snarky and hot as fuck.
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(Yes, Cookie Monster was my favorite.)
I ponder war photographer Brad Colbert. I think he's missing a toe. And he's got a some very large scars from shrapnel. The first time he sees Nate Fick with all his pale skin, he's sort of irritated and intrigued, and strangely self conscious, b/c that's something Brad is that people don't seem to talk about much. That thing with the ex? He wonders about himself a lot. He puts on a good front though. Ray's his driver. He doesn't want to take Nate along when he works, but he kind of can't help himself. It's the eyes. The determination. The fact that if he doesn't, Nate's going to go off on his own and get his ass killed and it's a very nice ass. It would be a shame to lose one.
There's this hotel that all the foriegn correspondents stay at, starts with a P, I wish I remembered, but Brad doesn't stay there. Nate does. After six weeks, Brad convinces Nate he needs to move out, to see Iraq as it really is. Except then Brad's living quarters get bombed and he ends up sleeping on Nate's floor.
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strangely self conscious, b/c that's something Brad is that people don't seem to talk about much.
Wait, srsly? Brad-the-hotass? Can people even see the shrapnel scars when he's, ya know, wearing clothes?
That thing with the ex? He wonders about himself a lot. He puts on a good front though.
OHHHH! Oh, Brad. ::pets him::
The fact that if he doesn't, Nate's going to go off on his own and get his ass killed and it's a very nice ass. It would be a shame to lose one.
A very nice ass. There are not enough nice asses in Brad's life, methinks. And he's a photog; he does so appreciate aesthetics. Especially Nate's.
After six weeks, Brad convinces Nate he needs to move out, to see Iraq as it really is. Except then Brad's living quarters get bombed and he ends up sleeping on Nate's floor.
Heh. Well, it achieves his goal of sleeping with Nate. If not actually sleeping WITH Nate.
Ray mocks Brad and his puppy-dog crush on the new kid. It's just unseemly. And yet welcome because it's Brad and Brad's crush is a) amusing and b) a proof of life. Also, does Ray think he can appropriate some of the new kid's nice stuff? Because I think he may be surprised at what a tough little bitch Nate can be. The irony, of course: Nate would share if asked.
::hearts::
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LOL. Do you think pretty people don't have insecurities too? That they're not plagued by doubt. Hot or not, people have issues. Or in the case of Brad, do you really think he considers himself good-looking? Honestly? Brad considers himself strong. In body and in mind. Physically able. Mentally capable. In my mind, Brad appreciates aesthetics in others, a good stride when you run, a strong arm in sports, a hot girl scantily clad, but appreciation does not necessarily follow *self* appreciation. In fact, most times it doesn't follow at all.
The irony, of course: Nate would share if asked.
Yes, but that's the idiocy of most people. You get further if you ask, but most people are too retarded to do so.
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do you really think he considers himself good-looking?
I think he knows that other people consider him good-looking, a range of enough other people to inform him that they must be seeing something, it's not just a one-off. But recognizing and internalizing are two different things, so.
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So say he's got a couple scars. One that creeps above the collar of his shirt and a few in his leg. Most people look at his face - as you pointed out - and even if Brad's got doubts, people respond to him. But this journalism thing is complicated. He's a white man. An American no less. He is not the norm. So, now people are staring for different reasons. Which, I think, is another reason he likes being abroad so often. Not that he's throwing it in anybody face, but here, he thinks he's judged more for who he is and not how he looks. Even though he is this anomaly, it's for a different reason. And women - this being Iraq - don't tend to look at him at all. The female journalists are so few and far between that they're like ghosts...
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I fully thought the same thing. Maybe something that reaches his neck, that IS visible.
Even though he is this anomaly, it's for a different reason.
And that is fascinating...since he knows he'll be judged, he's picking that on which he will be judged. Which actually lets him skate by on facing any insecurities in some ways.
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It's not small though. It's large, discernable, almost the size of a hand. And when Brad first was injured, he was just glad to be alive. Because the other people in that market? Not necessarily so lucky. His jugular is still in tact. And when he was in that Iraqi hospital, because freelancers don't have medical and he wasn't going to go home, not even for this -- he thought long and hard about his life. About what he was going to do next. Because everyone else told him to go home. Told him to get that good old US healthcare, but Brad's saving for a rainy day, and he'll only think it's raining when he loses a limb. When he ended up stateside again, months later, this time for the shrapnel in his leg, the doctors tried to convice him to let them clean up his neck. Skin grafts, the whole thing would look like new. Or at least better. And Brad said no, because he's spent his whole life being looked at, now, now people don't stare as much. Now when people look at him, they look him in the eye. These are his terms. Fuck everyone else.
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The Palestine Hotel?
(I'm reading Dexter Filkins' The Forever War and he mentions it a couple of times.)
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(The other big Baghdad hotel is the Al-Rasheed- the hotel that CNN broadcast from during the Gulf War.)
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