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49 - Stand-Off

Mar 22, 2010 10:09

Title: Stand-Off
Characters: Russia/America
Rating: PG-13
Summary: 1961 - The escalation of tensions between Russia and America following the construction of the Berlin Wall leads to a guns-drawn stare-down as the Berlin Crisis hits its peak.

TCE is co-written by wizzard890 and pyrrhiccomedy.

( They stood twenty paces apart, guns out, aimed between each other's eyes, their feet square on the damp asphalt. )

from the ministry of plenty

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hiza_chan March 22 2010, 04:21:08 UTC

This was really starting to hurt his arm. America chewed his lip, swallowed down a surge of helplessness. Because--he didn't dare to lower his gun. Not because Russia might shoot. Russia wouldn't shoot. Not over something this...stupid. But...

The others were watching. Everybody was watching.

I really liked this. The bits about everybody watching and how they think that they could sneeze and wind up killing everybody. I mean, I was born right when The Cold War was winding down, so I know next to nothing about how it actually was, but I imagine it was a lot like this. I mean, they did overreact so much and it could be so easy for them to have fucked up over a misunderstanding and blown up everyone. I just... this chapter. I like it.

pyrrhiccomedy March 22 2010, 04:28:52 UTC

Thank you, we're really glad you feel like it struck the right note. =D I think this is probably our most purely accurate-to-the-spirit-of-the-time chapter about the Cold War so far. They're in this ridiculous situation, over America going for a drive, and their holding guns on each other for it and they're both too proud to back down because their posse is totally watching, but...at the same time...deep down? They're desperately trying not to put a foot down wrong and set off the nuclear annihilation. I mean, taken in a certain light, I think the US and the USSR were both kind of just--kids who were in over their heads. And even though they had to put up a bold face, they knew how dangerous their situation was, all the time.

I was born right when The Cold War was winding down

Me too. Actually, one of my earliest memories is of my kindergarten teacher running into the room, wide-eyed, and telling the other teacher who was watching us play, "The Soviet Union just fell!"

hiza_chan March 22 2010, 04:43:30 UTC

Me too. Actually, one of my earliest memories is of my kindergarten teacher running into the room, wide-eyed, and telling the other teacher who was watching us play, "The Soviet Union just fell!"

Wow, that is some memory. Unfortunately, my mother was ridiculously religious and even worse when it comes to matters of the world. So... for most of the first half of my life history was basically, "Hey! America is awesome! We had a Revolution and a Civil War but that's all right because dude, we are totally awesome."

No really, I didn't even learn much about world history until I moved in with my dad at the end of my 8th grade year. It was kind of ridiculous, like my family's own little pocket of denial. So... no knowledge ABOUT the Cold War until it was WAY over.

And yes, the Cold War probably could have been resolved a lot more quickly if the posse hadn't been watching. Ugh! It's like a fight between bullies! They don't wanna back down because dude, then they'll lose face in front of their hos!

pyrrhiccomedy March 22 2010, 04:46:15 UTC

dude, then they'll lose face in front of their hos!

This is even funnier/sadder when you remember that "their hos" meant, like, England.

vivider April 19 2010, 08:07:15 UTC

Sadly England was probably tearing his hair out over this much more than caring over their self-image. xD

Not that I know anything about the broader politics of the time, that's just where I'd be, as a rationally-minded person in the midst of a potential global nuclear crisis.

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