Charles/Erik - WWI AU
anonymous
September 16 2011, 00:34:13 UTC
This prompt came out WAY LONGER THAN EXPECTED. Sorry guys.
It's 1917 and tensions are running high. The British have food and ammunition, but their troops are new, and half of them are more skittish than rabbits. The Germans have no food, no morale. They are dying by the hour, both from the enemy attack and from starvation, but those that live are battle-hardened, and they push through. After all, most of them know little else outside of the war.
One night, a young and terrified British soldier (one Charles Xavier) has finally had enough. He is only on his second month in the trenches, but already something has caused him to snap (watching a friend die, not being able to sleep, anon cares not), and before anyone can stop him he has run out between the trenches in an attempt to end his life.
Instead, he ends up being shot in the leg(/foot/whatever) by a German officer.
Honestly, Erik had been aiming for his chest, but sometimes you just miss.
With Charles so close to his lines, Erik can explicitly hear every sound that Charles makes. It is clear that he is not wounded enough to die, just enough not to walk, and after a few days, Erik finally goes out in the field to relieve him of his misery.
Only something stops him from killing him.
Instead, Erik ends up taking him behind their lines, hiding him, trying to nurse him back to health with the food that they have and trying to remind Charles of his sanity and why he doesn't want to die.
Bonus for lots of angst and h/c. Super bonus for Charles coming down with a fever and Erik sleeping outside with him to try and keep him war.
Happy or sad ending is up to author. As are most of the details in the prompt. Basically I just want Officer!Erik taking care of suicidal, post-traumatic Charles while trying to convince his troops that no, he is not hiding a British infantryman behind their lines, what are you talking about?
Smallish fill to encourage someone to write this (1/2)teacandlesSeptember 30 2011, 16:23:15 UTC
Reposted for lack of warnings. Better to be safe than sorry.
Warning for real life situational trauma (wartime situations).
---
It was raining again, hard and heavy, and as Erik moved his dripping hair out of his eyes, he couldn’t help but feel that he was running out of options.
He slowly crept back to his hiding spot, checking over his shoulder again and again to make sure he wasn’t being followed. The ground was uneven and highly unstable here; the walls of this particular trench had crumbled a weeks earlier, almost trapping the few men that had been stationed here. Now it was near-deserted, manned only by a select few who were brave (and stupid) enough to stay.
It was cold. It was wet. It was lonely. And it was perfect for hiding Erik’s little secret.
He stumbled a bit, gripping to muddy wall beside him to keep from spilling his provisions. The medical supplies were sure to be safe should he fall, but he wasn’t so sure about the food. He could already feel the bread softening in his arms from the rain.
He had been stupid, careless, and he had let this get to him. His comrades had noticed a change in his behavior, and it wouldn’t be long until someone came along to his end of the trenches and found out what he was hiding. Right now it was too hard to care.
“Charles?” He knew he should whisper to avoid drawing attention to himself, but it was hard to hear even his own voice over the rain. His charge was nowhere to be found. Good. Frustrating, but good. Charles was learning.
There was a small makeshift shelter that Erik had set up almost a week before. It wasn’t much, and the roof leaked a little when it rained (like now; it was always raining these days), but it was better than waiting for the muddy walls to tumble in around their heads. He ducked in under the flap and squinted against the dark. “Charles?”
“E-Erik?” Shit. He sounded even weaker than he had this morning. Erik nearly dropped the bundle in his arms in his haste to get to the other man. He crouched down low to the ground and carefully set his supplies down on the plank of wood they had been using as a table.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get back,“ he mumbled in shaky English. It was surprising how much of the language he remembered considering it had been years since he’d spoken even a word of it. “I was late picking up rations, and they wanted to know why I…Charles?”
“Erik? Have you seen Raven? She was just here earlier, but I think she had something wrong. Her skin. It was an awful lot like a lizard. And blue, I think. It was dark, so I had trouble seeing her clearly.”
“Shh.” Erik quieted him with a finger to his lips before moving his palm up to the man’s forehead. Shit. He was getting worse. Erik peeled back the shredded fabric of Charles’s pant leg. He’d bled through the bandage again, and Erik was sure that if he lifted away the stained linen he would see the telltale lines of infection branching out from the wound. The swelling was already something frightful.
Smallish fill to encourage someone to write this (2/2)teacandlesSeptember 30 2011, 16:24:16 UTC
“Erik?” Charles’s hand groped forward and caught in the folds of his regulation jacket, his shaking fingers twisting hard in the rough fabric. “It’s so quiet, Erik. I wasn’t sure you were coming back.”
“I’m here now. And you’re freezing.” He shuffled over to his bag and grabbed one of his remaining lights. He only had four left. If the rain kept up, he’d have to see if he could get a couple more from the higher-ups. He worried that the match wouldn’t light in the damp, but he lucked out. The dilapidated tent was suddenly filled with light, the heavy shadows fleeing into the night. Erik could see Charles’s pallor now, and when he drew the other man to his chest, he could feel him shaking. He wouldn’t last long. Not out here. Not like this.
“It’s so quiet,” Charles mumbled into his sleeve, and Erik felt something twist in his gut at the slurred English. Charles’s accent was growing heavier, and it took Erik a moment to decipher what he was saying. “I don’t like the quiet, Erik.”
Erik leaned over and dragged his canvas bag to him, afraid to loosen his grip on Charles lest he fall. The eagle had almost worn off the bag’s surface, and Erik found it strangely fitting. A German soldier and a deserter living together in the mud. It was like a bad joke, one whose punch line Erik had long forgotten.
Charles had been carrying a book in his pocket when he’d gone down. A little thing, but he’d been holding it like a lifeline when Erik had dared venture out to find the body of the man he’d shot. The words had seemed to bring Charles comfort these past few days, and Erik was loathe to deny him that. Not when the man was dying in his arms.
He fingered through the pages, smudged and crumpled and damaged from the rain. Still legible, though.
“Out of the night that covers me,” he began, stumbling a bit over the words. It was still strange to be reading English after all this time. Charles’s soft voice joined him after a time, hoarse and scratchy, but firm. Charles had carved these poems into his heart.
“It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
---
Tempting? Anyone? I'm not that great with WWI history (or European history in general after 700 CE as Europe is not my area of study), but I'd love to see someone take this on with an actual fill. I have a huge soft spot for this particular war but little chance to actually study it, so any inaccuracy here is my fault.
Poem is Invictus from The Oxford Book of English Verse.
Re: Smallish fill to encourage someone to write this (2/2)teacandlesOctober 3 2011, 05:17:02 UTC
Thanks, darling. ♥ I really, really want a full story for this because this prompt, it is love. I'm unfortunately swamped with stuff right now (both school-related and not), so I can't write it myself, but I might just do it later since I've already done up some research for it, and I want this so freaking bad, it's insane.
Re: Smallish fill to encourage someone to write this (2/2)blueteakOctober 3 2011, 05:32:31 UTC
This is absolutely gorgeous. You've packed so much into this and I love the details, like the eagle worn off the bag. Really hope that you can come back to it at some point!
Re: Smallish fill to encourage someone to write this (2/2)teacandlesOctober 3 2011, 05:39:03 UTC
Thank you! ♥ I think that once my midterms (D:) are over I'll come back to this. Maybe even before then as a stress reliever, I don't know. I just really, really want this story to happen.
Re: Smallish fill to encourage someone to write this (2/2)teacandlesOctober 3 2011, 19:09:57 UTC
Oh no, please do! I'm still probably going to do a longer fill for this, but I'd love to read whatever you come up with should you decide to write something. ♥ You wouldn't be stepping on my toes at all.
And thank you so much for the praise. ♥♥♥ I went looking for books that British soldiers might have carried with them into the trenches, and The Oxford Book of English Verse seemed to be popular (you can find most, if not all of the poems here if you want to take a look; there's some really good stuff in there).
Re: Smallish fill to encourage someone to write this (2/2)teacandlesOctober 4 2011, 14:49:21 UTC
Yay! I'm excited to read it. :) I haven't read through all of them yet, either (there's almost 900 of them D:), but here are a couple that I liked when I was browsing through them:
There's also a bunch of stuff from Shakespeare starting at 123 if you want to use anything of his. Beware of some of the ones under 50. From the couple of those I browsed through, their language is fairly antiquated. Good luck, and I really look forward to see what you come up with. ♥
A wild OP appears!
anonymous
October 4 2011, 08:20:55 UTC
Oh good God. My heart. I don't think I have ever been reduced to tears so quickly. This is... I am speechless.
Honestly I hadn't even expected anyone to take interest in this, but now there is a FILL (a mini-fill, but still), and it is it BEAUTIFUL. The way you wrote Erik and Charles was spot on with what I had imagined, and the atmosphere, and the emotion, and even Erik's makeshift tent, and agdfaisj. I never knew so much emotion and character and description could be packed into such a short fill. I am reduced to incoherence in the presence of this. It is too wonderful.
If you ever wanted to continue this I would be absolutely thrilled, but if not, thank you so so so much for this beautiful fill. <3
Re: A wild OP appears!teacandlesOctober 4 2011, 14:58:29 UTC
Thank you. ♥♥♥
I was going through some of the prompts (I think I was looking for something in particular, but I don't remember) and I found this. As I mentioned before, I have such a soft spot for WWI, though as of yet I've had very few opportunities to study it (hopefully this coming semester), so I kind of fell in love despite the (oh dear lord) six open WIPs I have going right now. I plan to do something longer for this because it's such a wonderful prompt, and I'm almost done with one of my WIPs, so you can expect that sometime soon. ♥
Re: A wild OP appears!
anonymous
October 4 2011, 18:39:26 UTC
It is such a fascinating war. <3 Depressing, but fascinating. Hopefully you do get time to study it soon. If you have time to read, I definitely recommend All Quiet on the Western Front if you haven't already read it. It's fiction and 300 pages, but it does a beautiful job of describing what it was like for soldier in WWI.
Six WIPs? How do you have time to eat? Or sleep? ... Or do you do either of those things? Also, why am I not reading them? Anyway, the fact that you want to do something longer makes want to throw some kind of party. Or at least bake you something. <3 I shall be eagerly awaiting this! That being said, don't feel rushed or pressured or anything. Take your time. <3
It's 1917 and tensions are running high. The British have food and ammunition, but their troops are new, and half of them are more skittish than rabbits. The Germans have no food, no morale. They are dying by the hour, both from the enemy attack and from starvation, but those that live are battle-hardened, and they push through. After all, most of them know little else outside of the war.
One night, a young and terrified British soldier (one Charles Xavier) has finally had enough. He is only on his second month in the trenches, but already something has caused him to snap (watching a friend die, not being able to sleep, anon cares not), and before anyone can stop him he has run out between the trenches in an attempt to end his life.
Instead, he ends up being shot in the leg(/foot/whatever) by a German officer.
Honestly, Erik had been aiming for his chest, but sometimes you just miss.
With Charles so close to his lines, Erik can explicitly hear every sound that Charles makes. It is clear that he is not wounded enough to die, just enough not to walk, and after a few days, Erik finally goes out in the field to relieve him of his misery.
Only something stops him from killing him.
Instead, Erik ends up taking him behind their lines, hiding him, trying to nurse him back to health with the food that they have and trying to remind Charles of his sanity and why he doesn't want to die.
Bonus for lots of angst and h/c.
Super bonus for Charles coming down with a fever and Erik sleeping outside with him to try and keep him war.
Happy or sad ending is up to author. As are most of the details in the prompt. Basically I just want Officer!Erik taking care of suicidal, post-traumatic Charles while trying to convince his troops that no, he is not hiding a British infantryman behind their lines, what are you talking about?
Reply
Reply
Warning for real life situational trauma (wartime situations).
---
It was raining again, hard and heavy, and as Erik moved his dripping hair out of his eyes, he couldn’t help but feel that he was running out of options.
He slowly crept back to his hiding spot, checking over his shoulder again and again to make sure he wasn’t being followed. The ground was uneven and highly unstable here; the walls of this particular trench had crumbled a weeks earlier, almost trapping the few men that had been stationed here. Now it was near-deserted, manned only by a select few who were brave (and stupid) enough to stay.
It was cold. It was wet. It was lonely. And it was perfect for hiding Erik’s little secret.
He stumbled a bit, gripping to muddy wall beside him to keep from spilling his provisions. The medical supplies were sure to be safe should he fall, but he wasn’t so sure about the food. He could already feel the bread softening in his arms from the rain.
He had been stupid, careless, and he had let this get to him. His comrades had noticed a change in his behavior, and it wouldn’t be long until someone came along to his end of the trenches and found out what he was hiding. Right now it was too hard to care.
“Charles?” He knew he should whisper to avoid drawing attention to himself, but it was hard to hear even his own voice over the rain. His charge was nowhere to be found. Good. Frustrating, but good. Charles was learning.
There was a small makeshift shelter that Erik had set up almost a week before. It wasn’t much, and the roof leaked a little when it rained (like now; it was always raining these days), but it was better than waiting for the muddy walls to tumble in around their heads. He ducked in under the flap and squinted against the dark. “Charles?”
“E-Erik?” Shit. He sounded even weaker than he had this morning. Erik nearly dropped the bundle in his arms in his haste to get to the other man. He crouched down low to the ground and carefully set his supplies down on the plank of wood they had been using as a table.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get back,“ he mumbled in shaky English. It was surprising how much of the language he remembered considering it had been years since he’d spoken even a word of it. “I was late picking up rations, and they wanted to know why I…Charles?”
“Erik? Have you seen Raven? She was just here earlier, but I think she had something wrong. Her skin. It was an awful lot like a lizard. And blue, I think. It was dark, so I had trouble seeing her clearly.”
“Shh.” Erik quieted him with a finger to his lips before moving his palm up to the man’s forehead. Shit. He was getting worse. Erik peeled back the shredded fabric of Charles’s pant leg. He’d bled through the bandage again, and Erik was sure that if he lifted away the stained linen he would see the telltale lines of infection branching out from the wound. The swelling was already something frightful.
Reply
“I’m here now. And you’re freezing.” He shuffled over to his bag and grabbed one of his remaining lights. He only had four left. If the rain kept up, he’d have to see if he could get a couple more from the higher-ups. He worried that the match wouldn’t light in the damp, but he lucked out. The dilapidated tent was suddenly filled with light, the heavy shadows fleeing into the night. Erik could see Charles’s pallor now, and when he drew the other man to his chest, he could feel him shaking. He wouldn’t last long. Not out here. Not like this.
“It’s so quiet,” Charles mumbled into his sleeve, and Erik felt something twist in his gut at the slurred English. Charles’s accent was growing heavier, and it took Erik a moment to decipher what he was saying. “I don’t like the quiet, Erik.”
Erik leaned over and dragged his canvas bag to him, afraid to loosen his grip on Charles lest he fall. The eagle had almost worn off the bag’s surface, and Erik found it strangely fitting. A German soldier and a deserter living together in the mud. It was like a bad joke, one whose punch line Erik had long forgotten.
Charles had been carrying a book in his pocket when he’d gone down. A little thing, but he’d been holding it like a lifeline when Erik had dared venture out to find the body of the man he’d shot. The words had seemed to bring Charles comfort these past few days, and Erik was loathe to deny him that. Not when the man was dying in his arms.
He fingered through the pages, smudged and crumpled and damaged from the rain. Still legible, though.
“Out of the night that covers me,” he began, stumbling a bit over the words. It was still strange to be reading English after all this time. Charles’s soft voice joined him after a time, hoarse and scratchy, but firm. Charles had carved these poems into his heart.
“It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”
---
Tempting? Anyone? I'm not that great with WWI history (or European history in general after 700 CE as Europe is not my area of study), but I'd love to see someone take this on with an actual fill. I have a huge soft spot for this particular war but little chance to actually study it, so any inaccuracy here is my fault.
Poem is Invictus from The Oxford Book of English Verse.
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I would write it as well but I'm also swamped with school and other fills.
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(The comment has been removed)
And thank you so much for the praise. ♥♥♥ I went looking for books that British soldiers might have carried with them into the trenches, and The Oxford Book of English Verse seemed to be popular (you can find most, if not all of the poems here if you want to take a look; there's some really good stuff in there).
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
A Farewell to Arms (#102)
A Farewell to the World (#190)
A White Rose (#831)
Dawn (#235)
Discipline (#283)
Love is a Sickness" (#111)
Old Age (#306)
Tears (#65)
The Great Misgiving" (#854)
The Night is Near Gone (#48)
The Unfading Beauty (#292)
Why (#857)
There's also a bunch of stuff from Shakespeare starting at 123 if you want to use anything of his. Beware of some of the ones under 50. From the couple of those I browsed through, their language is fairly antiquated. Good luck, and I really look forward to see what you come up with. ♥
Reply
Honestly I hadn't even expected anyone to take interest in this, but now there is a FILL (a mini-fill, but still), and it is it BEAUTIFUL. The way you wrote Erik and Charles was spot on with what I had imagined, and the atmosphere, and the emotion, and even Erik's makeshift tent, and agdfaisj. I never knew so much emotion and character and description could be packed into such a short fill. I am reduced to incoherence in the presence of this. It is too wonderful.
If you ever wanted to continue this I would be absolutely thrilled, but if not, thank you so so so much for this beautiful fill. <3
Reply
I was going through some of the prompts (I think I was looking for something in particular, but I don't remember) and I found this. As I mentioned before, I have such a soft spot for WWI, though as of yet I've had very few opportunities to study it (hopefully this coming semester), so I kind of fell in love despite the (oh dear lord) six open WIPs I have going right now. I plan to do something longer for this because it's such a wonderful prompt, and I'm almost done with one of my WIPs, so you can expect that sometime soon. ♥
Reply
Six WIPs? How do you have time to eat? Or sleep? ... Or do you do either of those things? Also, why am I not reading them?
Anyway, the fact that you want to do something longer makes want to throw some kind of party. Or at least bake you something. <3 I shall be eagerly awaiting this! That being said, don't feel rushed or pressured or anything. Take your time. <3
Reply
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