#nikkirecs

[warcorrespondence]

You've probably seen that post that goes around, you know the one: It's all fun and games in hbowar until you want to see two women have a conversation.

Well, @mercurygray/mercurygray set out to fix that. The Darkening Sky is full of women having conversations about real things.

fandom: band of brothers

pairing: Dick Winters/OC

mature, 220612 words

This epic asks the question: what would it be like if women went to war with Easy Company? No, but really though?

There are a lot of OCs, and a personal challenge I have with reading OCs is that I already love the canon characters. So for me, OCs have more work to do in fanfic than they do in novels, because they have to shoulder aside my blorbos. (This is me - there are a lot of OC writers and readers in this fandom and bravo to you all! I’m simply explaining a barrier I have). 

But fairly quickly, they established themselves, and over not too long a time, I grew to love them.

The main relationship is between Joan Warren, niece of General Pershing and society gal of Nixon’s ilk, and Dick Winters - she’s flirtier than he is, and more outspoken, but just as driven and in essence just as private. It takes them A WHILE to get going, because it would - these are two serious people with serious things to do, and they take love seriously too.

And all right, I’m just going to put it out there - was it a challenge, as a card-carrying winnix girlie, to hop on board that train? 

…not really? 

It helps that Nix ships it (which, like everything here, is shown and not told, and with delightful subtlety). It helps that Joan is awesome, a fully-fleshed out character with flaws and frustrations, narrative drive as well as personal drive. It helps that this is just another world where the Nix-Dick friendship didn’t develop that way, from Toccoa onward. There is no "We'll go to Chicago, I’ll take you there." It’s not what happens. 

(This fic also doesn't straightwash - there's not a ton of focus on m/m or f/f relationships, but they're there).

But Joan and Dick, much as I love to read about them, are not the only focus of the story. POV shifts all the time, sometimes to Shifty, sometimes to minor characters like Aldbourne residents or land girls, and we get an idea of what the war is like for them, as well as their perspective on Easy Company in all its camaraderie and complexity. 

It probably goes without saying that in a fandom full of heavily researched fics, Merc’s stands out as being the most meticulous. She knows her shit, and I knew that going in. But there’s a difference between throwing in facts and details for the sake of it, and doing it to further the experience of the reader. I felt like I learned things, but never like I was being taken to school - when I learned something it was because I was gaining context about a beloved character or understanding more about how the world would work for women in these circumstances. And they don't all have the same experience! Life for Lieutenant Joan Warren, reluctant media darling, is very different than it is for Sergeants Billie Mitchell or Marj Gordon (just to name a couple of my favorites).

These women never stop being women, and being treated that way, for better or worse (often worse). And there's something heartbreakingly frustrating but also beautiful about that.

Marj’s new haircut looked good on her - Doris wasn’t proud of a whole lot, these days, but any time she caught sight of Marj with her helmet off she had to smile. I did that. And she looks damn good. Marj’s honey-colored pageboy was starting to get a little long at the edges, but only enough to make Doris regret not bringing her scissors so she could do everyone else’s. Her fellow sergeant looked…free, without the hair, released from some burden of responsibility to look like she belonged somewhere else and might well be there soon. Why didn’t we do that earlier? Doris wondered to herself. It’s a war, not a beauty pageant. We’re not winning awards.  Because we’re still women, and we still want beauty. Because it’s hard to change something like that.  Because we all want to go right back to the way it was when this is over - even if we know we can’t. The way it was. The phrase made Doris want to laugh. They weren’t those women and men any more, the kids who’d arrived at Toccoa, and it was foolish to think they might be. Look at any of them, bruised and scarred - look at Marj! And even if they hadn’t changed, the people at home would have. (Look at Marj, again - and fuck Allen, while they were looking.)

#band of brothers #nikkirecs #200k-250k words #dick/oc

[warcorrespondence]

I know I promised Sherlock reviews for Free Fandom Friday, and trust me, they will come, but first I have to talk about hockey. Oh, and Captive Prince.

Concordia by Ccainao3 is what we'll be discussing today, because I haven't stopped talking about it, nor will.

fandom: captive prince

pairing: damen/laurent

explicit, 123869 words

I'm going to start by saying that if you haven't read the Captive Prince series by C.S. Pacat, it is the humble opinion of this Correspondent that you really, really should. Like, right now. It's epic enemies to lovers villain with a heart of gold Nikki catnip and I will never, ever shut up about it.

But Concordia is something very different. First of all, it's a hockey au, and for all the hockey lovers in the hbowar fandom (@ep6bastogne included)...I am not one of them. I have never once seen a hockey. And yet, as has been discussed, there's...a lot of good hockey writing? So I've read a shocking amount of hockey, and I'm here to tell you that Concordia offers Very Good Hockey.

More than that, it offers extremely good character work. Captive Prince is full of horrors, and in taking the story out of that Franco/Roman fantasy world, Ccainao3 did not remove the horrors--they exposed them. The traumas in all their multitudes are laid bare, and each character is forced to work through them. Damen and Laurent work slowly (very slowly) through Laurent's abuse, as well as each of their complicated relationships with Auguste (who lives). Damen also works through his relationship with Kastor. As in the books, Damen and Laurent are both deeply flawed people, who are trying so fucking hard.

If this all sounds dark and challenging...it is. But it's also so fun and sweet and lovely! Damen and Laurent are just so good for each other, and hard on each other in the best kinds of ways, and it was wonderful to watch them come together and heal.

“Did you think I’d been reporting on you, or something?” “No,” Laurent says, but his face twitches. Damen digs in his pocket for his phone, and tosses it to Laurent, who fumbles it a little but doesn’t let it fall. He looks down at it, and then back up at Damen. “What,” he says, blank. Damen gives a “go-ahead” gesture. “You’re serious,” Laurent says. “As a heart attack.” For a moment, Laurent looks almost anguished. “If your passcode’s four sevens, I’m breaking up with you,” he says finally. “No you won’t,” Damen says comfortably. His passcode is, in fact, four sevens; there’s a click as Laurent unlocks it. “And besides, we’re just friends.” “Of course,” Laurent murmurs. “By any chance, do you have a peach emoji and a heart next to all your friends’ names?” Damen’s face is on fire. “The, uh, the peach emoji’s old.” “And the heart is new?” Damen had added it a week ago on a whim, after Laurent had sent him a text asking him to grab some yogurt on his way home. “Newer.” “I suppose I should add an eggplant to yours,” Laurent says, almost too quietly to hear. Damen thinks he must be eggplant-colored at this point. “Sure,” he says.

#free fandom friday #captive prince #damen x laurent #nikkirecs #100k-200k words

[warcorrespondence]

@ceeturnalia/traveller wrote this fic called aftermath, usa. I read it a little while back, and then I proceeded to think about it for a long time. It's about love, and about trauma, and the ways we love and the ways we trauma, and how maybe none of them look great from the outside, but we are on the outside, so maybe we should all shut up.

(Shocking no one, @ep6bastogne recommended it to me, but I'm stealing a march on writing the review)

fandom: generation kill

pairing: bradnate

explicit, 24616 words

I started this while sitting on a beach, a calm and idyllic setting if ever there was one, with my heart racing and my jaw clenched.

A month or two before, I said to @screwby, "I really just want an angsty road trip fic, is that so much to ask?"

And behold! The angsty road trip fic of my dreams! Only this particular road trip is precipitated by Nate getting shot.

He stops a couple of bullets intended for the President of the United States (no, he’s not Secret Service, just in the right place at the right time, standing there being Nate Fick). He recovers enough to call Brad to come pick him up from the hospital.

They drive across the country, from DC to San Diego, and it becomes clear that whatever their feelings for each other, they haven’t spoken in 10 years. And yet Brad dropped everything to come get him.

It’s a trip of recovery, of Nate’s health both emotional and physical, of their relationship, of what they meant and could mean, and what they decide they do and will mean to each other.

It's by turns rough and moving, gentle and brutal. It's sexy and sweet and funny all at once.

Is this a long quote? Yes. Yes it is. But it also, for me, fully encapsulates what this fic does, like a punch in the gut (or a weak, post-gunshot attempt at violence).

"I'm asking you for help," Nate says. "You fucking retard." Nate's weak left hand lands on Brad's arm, fist closed. "Was that… was that a punch?" Brad stares, swallowing the rest of the wash of emotion. "Because what I saw was the most limp-wristed pussy faggot attempt at violence since that time Person got in a catfight with a fucking Laker girl." "Fuck you," Nate says, hitting Brad again, a little harder this time, but the effort shows on his face. "Brad." Brad takes his hand, gives the fingers a squeeze. "You're serious." He looks back to the road, the white lines and the blue sky flying by. "Sooner or later, whether or not I want to go back will cease to be an issue." Nate's voice drops, shaking a little. "They'll fuck around for a while longer, probably months, maybe even years, but I'm going to have to. And I'm going to need. Help." Ten years where Nate didn't call, where the emails tapered off and finally stopped altogether. Nate graduated, Nate got married to some Back Bay princess, Nate wrote a book that barely mentioned Brad at all. Nate moved on. And Nate somehow knows, when Brad meets his eyes again, and he shakes his head. "I tried. But I missed you every fucking day," he husks. Brad bites down on the inside of his cheek. He's thirty-nine years old, he's a man, he's a Marine. He's not going to break down like some screaming teenage girl, pissing herself and crying at the latest Disney Channel dicksuck's concert. "You too," he says. Nate leans back in his seat, his whole body going slack. "Wake me when we hit Utah," he says, and closes his eyes.

#generation kill #20k-30k words #nikkirecs #bradnate

[warcorrespondence]

review: improvise, adapt, overcome

T'is I, @gorgeousundertow/Nikki, back to once more tell you about Brad/Nate (I promise you, we're not a Brad/Nate blog, it's just that Lenora and I and also Bel are having A Moment. As the Hot Priest says, it'll pass).

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome by @dsudis/Dira Sudis

fandom: generation kill

pairing: brad/nate

explicit, 4449 words

For a fic about erectile dysfunction set in the world of GK, this is shockingly sweet.

It's Nate, folks. Nate can't get it up, and it's not because of anything psychological - it's that he's found meds that work for his depression, but the side-effects Aren't Great.

He couldn't manage to explain all that to Brad while he was deployed, so Brad comes home and finds Nate is...apparently disinterested?

But that's not at all what this fic is about, actually. It's about how fantastic their communication is, because despite what is an objectively awkward and unmanful (in toxic masculinity terms, which I think we can all agree GK absolutely subscribes to) situation, Brad and Nate talk about it, get clear on the situation, and proceed to have Very Excellent Sex regardless.

Brad's hand closed on his dick, engulfing it easily in its totally limp state. Brad was looking down at his hand, at Nate's dick. The lack of eye contact, and the way Brad's sudden palpable calm felt like combat, made it paradoxically easier for Nate to sound calm when he spoke. "So when I told you that the new medication was working really well and I was feeling a lot better," Nate said lightly. "I neglected to mention a couple of side effects." Brad's eyes flicked up to his, but the carefully steady look didn't ease. "Occasional dizzy spells," Nate explained. "Until right this second, that was actually the most annoying one."

#generation kill #nikkirecs #bradnate #1k-5k words

[warcorrespondence]

Review: The Luckiest

We're starting off with a fic that's very dear to me: The Luckiest, by harriet_vane.

Fandom: Band of Brothers

Pairing: Winnix

General Audiences, 7,982 words

I don't know how, but harriet (can I call you harriet?) packed so much into these 8k words.

It's a modern au, with Nix working a job he hates and being left by a wife he barely saw. She took the dog, as they say, and somehow or other, he ends up drunk on the lawn of his next door neighbor, petting his dog. The tall, redheaded neighbor looks down at him, bemused, and puts him to bed on his couch.

It's a delicious slow burn of friendship and pining, of the gentle intimacies of grocery shopping and home repair and keeping whiskey for your neighbor that sleeps on your couch most nights even though you don't drink. It's the sort of fic that makes you want to curl up on a comfy chair and makes your heart race (for General Audiences, there is a lot of chemistry here).

"Oh, I take in strays sometimes,” says Dick.

And I swoon.

-Nikki @gorgeousundertow

#band of brothers #winnix #nikkirecs #5k-10k words #best of the best

[warcorrespondence]

Review: Born Ready

Born Ready by makeit_takeit / @makeit-takeit (whose complete works I, Nikki / @gorgeousundertow will now be reading, thank you)

fandom: generation kill

pairing: bradnate

explicit, 98199 words

I have literal pages of notes on this fic - that's how much I loved it. It's an unusual approach, but such a wonderful one, and it's helped me understand these two characters (about whom I had already given a great deal of thought) so much more deeply. Like this is basically canon for me now. It's the long road of how they got to be the people they are before OIF, how they (eventually) come together, and how they stay together.

Spoiler I really do feel you should know before going in: Brad and Nate don’t have so much as a conversation until you’re fully one-third of the way in. (The first one they have with actual dialogue tags, Nate is half naked though so DON’T WORRY THIS FIC WILL DELIVER).

This is actually a spoiler - heavy review, so if you’re not into that, leave now, knowing only this: this fic is incredible, read it immediately.

Born Ready genuinely is a character study, of both of them, the deepest I’ve ever encountered. It explores their (very different) paths to uncovering their sexualities which (another spoiler) they do before they meet. This is not a Brad meets Nate or vice versa and discovers whoops! I’m gay! (The guy I lost my virginity to said he lost his “accidentally" like he tripped over something, and I always think of that….anyhoo).

So there’s a lot of sex with people who aren’t each other, for the first 1/3. But it’s all for a reason, as my favorite kind of sex-in-a-fic is (whether it’s exploring a developing relationship, emotional state, stakes, etc). In this case, it’s character study and if you don’t think a BJ can be character study well you just haven’t read makeit-takeit yet. (And again, DON'T WORRY WHEN THEY DO BANG THEY BANG VERY WELL, IT'S EXTREMELY GOOD YES)

It also skips OIF entirely which I’ll confess I was sad about, because with this level of character study I actually wanted to get makeit-takeit's take on every single scene at least some crucial scenes at least the final unreadable look okay??? But the show is treated as canon we already know rather than something the author needs to fill us in on and contextualize…which, fair! And respect!

Even after they take the first steps they take a long time - A LONG TIME - to really make it work. Which, having understood these characters and their individual fears and hesitations so well, felt absolutely true and right. Frustrating? Yes. But right.

But they do make it work, and it's entirely in character and just the right kind of sweetness - because it's earned.

"I'm flattered, Nate." He looks at Nate resolutely. "But I"m not the guy you want, or-or the guy you should have. If you're honest with yourself, I think you know that." It sounds so final, like the Iceman has fucking spoken, and that's that. Nate can't keep the sneer off his face. "Fuck you." Brad's head snaps up. "Are you fucking-" "No, Fuck. You. Fuck you for not believing you're worth anyone's time - my time - just because some shitty people did a shitty thing to you, once. And fuck you for not trusting me to stick with you even when it's hard. Fuck you for treating me like I'm too fucking fragile to be burdened with any of the shit you carry around with you every day. And mostly, Brad? Fuck you for acting like you're doing this to protect me, when you're just trying to protect yourself."

#generation kill #bradnate #nikkirecs #90k-100k words

[warcorrespondence]

review: it's all in print

Look! Nikki's reading about something besides Brad/Nate!

(I mean...it's winnix, so I'm not stretching too far...)

it's all in print by @prettypaprika/partypaprika

fandom: band of brothers

pairing: winnix

general audiences, 4494 words

If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for an epistolary story. Paprika did an exquisite job telling what was clearly a complex and challenging progression of the relationship between Dick and Nix through news reports, marriage certificates (to other people, sob), advertisements for honey, hotel registries, and more.

It's not an easy read, if I'm being honest. I wanted to understand - I wanted journals, letters between the two of them, I wanted to know who these other people in their lives were, why they kept circling toward each other and then away again?

And yet, for all that, we can fill in the blanks, the tenderness that exists between these sparse (and expertly formatted!) snippets.

OJAI VALLEY NEWS, March 12, 1956 Honey Days—Mrs. Belcher’s third grade class visits the Winters’ farm, learning about beekeeping and farming. Mr. Lewis Nixon, friend to Mr. Richard Winter, owner of the farm, demonstrates how to remove honeycomb from a hive.

#band of brothers #1k-5k words #winnix #nikkirecs

[warcorrespondence]

It's been weeks since our last bradnate review! You must all be desperate, I know! Well, never fear, the brainrot has not yet ceased...

Leading the Way by nogoaway

fandom: generation kill

pairing: bradnate

explicit, 27581 words

The description reads: "In which Nate, being an officer at heart, takes approximately 25 years to find his own dick with a map." I had this fic in my "Marked For Later" for ages mainly because I knew, based on that sentence alone, that I was going to love everything about it, and I wanted to save it up. I was not wrong.

If, like me, you enjoy seeing your beloveds beat up and bloodied on the floor, but, like, emotionally, this is the fic for you.

It's entirely from Nate's POV, and such a tortured POV it is. Immediately after OIF, Brad makes his move, and Nate, wracked with trauma and self-abnegation, turns him down. It is a brutal scene, because the reader knows how difficult and meaningful this is for Brad - but Nate misreads it entirely.

“We're home.” Brad pressed harder against him. “You're out, or as good as. What, exactly, is your problem?” Nate couldn't believe him. “Are you out of your mind?” “Crazy about you,” Brad deadpanned. “Stark raving mad. What?” “Look,” Nate said, baffled and frustrated that he was being asked to articulate something that Brad was more than smart enough to know for himself at the age of twenty-seven with a career in the infantry, “sometimes this-- these things can happen, in combat. It's a consequence of the environment. And it's best to just move on, and forget about it.” He'd seen the expression on Brad's face exactly twice before-- once when they turned back three dozen Iraqi surrenders into the desert, and once when a civilian hamlet he was observing was hit by an air strike. It was Brad very intentionally relaxing all of his muscles, gathering up everything inside of himself that was not strictly professional, and packing it away. Nate was familiar with this method, and he liked to think that his own 'packing-it-up' expression was not so obvious. But, as had been established, he was full of shit when it came to hiding what he was feeling from Brad Colbert. He should just get up and leave, but it sat sour in his stomach to have this be the last he saw of Brad in a casual setting, the last honest conversation they would ever have. It was beneath both of them to leave all of Iraq like this, over something like this. “It happens, Brad.” He clenched his fists under the table. “It doesn't mean anything. We're still-- we're good.” Something flickered across Brad's face-- surprise, and something almost like curiosity, like Nate was an indistinct structure in the distance that he had first mistaken for a mirage. “You're fucked up about this,” he said, with what sounded like genuine awe. “I thought East-Coast Ivy-Leaguers were falling over themselves to outdo each other on tolerance. Did something happen to you?” Nate swallowed the 'it's none of your fucking business', because it would just sound like 'yes'. Brad clearly had some idea in his head of what Nate's reasoning was. “Nothing 'happened'. I'm just realistic.”

All right, I know that was a really long excerpt, but what you don't realize is how painful it was for me to make it that short. And I'm not even giving much away, because that is the second chapter. The remainder of the fic stays with Nate (and mostly stays away from Brad) as he figures out what he was hearing, and what he should have said in return.

It takes a while. And if I'm honest, Brad is a little too well-adjusted for me to fully believe (like, this is Brad...Colbert we're talking about?) But that's a quibble, and it's necessary, because it's Nate's story, and Brad's fucked-upedness just happens offscreen. But when they do work it out, it is earned, and they know exactly what it all has meant, and so it's all worth it.

#generation kill #bradnate #25k-30k words #nikkirecs

[warcorrespondence]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50561467

when you needed it shouted

by LT_Aldo_Raine

Fic Rec because it was GOOD and also #writer envy. And it needs way more comments and kudos for how good it was.

@bleedingcoffee42 how right you are!! I said, "Winnix, you say?" and jumped in, and I'm so glad I did.

fandom: band of brothers

pairing: winnix

general audiences, 3663 words

This postwar story opens with Nix on a bender, Lost Weekend-style, and Dick coming to get him on his feet. It's not the very beginning of their relationship--it's clear something happened back in Austria, but it's also clear that Nix fucked it up, because of course he did.

It's a turning point. It's Dick showing up to say again, here I am. This is here, for you, if you want it.

The writing is outstanding; it's perfectly in character, but with little details of place and texture that make it feel grounded in more than just good dialogue.

“Your friends are worried about you, Lew.” “Haven’t you heard, Dick? I quit the friend business some time ago. We just couldn’t turn a profit.”

#band of brothers #nikkirecs #1k-5k words #winnix

[warcorrespondence]

But like, what if Nix was...a dragon?

From The Court of Gale and Iron by Muccamukk

fandom: band of brothers

pairing: winnix

teen, 43679 words

I am sorry to report that there is no dragon fucking. It is a giant pity, and we were all deprived.

However! This fic was so much fun. It's a crossover au with The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells, which I have not read but now very much want to. I'm sure that if I had read them I'd have enjoyed the fic all the more, but Mucca did a great job with ensuring that I had everything I needed without that context.

Nix is a dragon, y'all. He's a dragon. And yet he remains completely, utterly, inescapably Nix, in all his never fired a weapon in combat, nothing but the best for Mrs. Nixon's baby boy greatness.

And the best part is he stays a dragon pretty much the whole time. He's captured by the Currahee forces in dragon form, and they don't know that he has the ability to take groundling (human-ish) form. He stays Dragon!Nix to protect himself, even as he gets to know a certain Captain Winters, with whom he gradually forms a kind of trust, then friendship, then something more.

In Nix's culture, sex is something you just do, with whoever, whenever. It's comforting and nice. This is not, as you might imagine, something our beloved Dick Winters could really wrap his head around with a fellow human, much less with a dragon that he is, somehow, feeling an inexplicable attraction for.

It's downright glorious. This scene, right here? I can't stop thinking about it, and every time I do I fall over cackling with glee:

It seemed to Nix that it would be a good idea if they were clear about what they were trying to do, before sorting out the details. "I think you're very pretty, and I want to have sex with you, Winters," Nix said. Winters slumped forward, burying his face in his hands. He made an inarticulate sound that Nix read as an indication of distress, and backed away a little. Attempting to clarify the situation, it seemed, had not been a good choice. Nix had to admit that stung. He'd thought he and Winters were getting along pretty well. Had Winters been Raksura, they'd have had sex the night before, and called that that. Nix had heard that other species spent much more time and effort agonising over who was allowed to have sex with whom, but he hadn't quite believed it until now. Why bother? What in the Three Worlds was the point? However much of a stick in the mud Winters was turning out to be, Nix was risking the only friend he had in Currahee by messing this up. "I'm sorry," he said slowly, trying to think what to say. "I didn't understand. I thought you were interested." Winters groaned, but dropped his hands so that he could look at Nix. His skin had become pale, and Nix really needed a guide for what these colour changing groundlings meant. "No." Winters was speaking just as deliberately as Nix. Was he scared too? "No. You, uh, you're right, Nix. I am interested. I guess I'm just not very good at this kind of thing." He tried to smile, but his face seemed frozen in embarrassment, and his lips only twitched up briefly before flattening into a thin, miserable line.

Rest assured, Dick's misery and Nix's confusion do not last, and this interspecies love affair is resolved in a way that feels thoughtful and sweet, as well as right and true.

#band of brothers #winnix #nikkirecs #40k - 45k words

[warcorrespondence]

review: hunting season

nogoaway wrote this lil ditty called hunting season and what happened was I started thinking about going backpacking again.

fandom: generation kill

pairing: bradnate

mature, 9124 words

Me, a week ago, loading up on porny fanfic for an airplane ride: I'm so SET, this is GREAT.

Actually reading said porny fanfic on the plane: Ohgodohgod please don't read over my shoulder I'm sorry i'm such a perv as I sit here with my knitting and my overalls I'm like a cottage core stealth pervert you had no idea what you were getting into when I sat down I'll just keep making the font smaller and hope for the best.

Which is to say, some fics are rated Explicit, and I say meh. Some, like this one, are rated a mild bodice-ripping Mature, and I need to fan myself.

Perhaps you'd like to know more about the actual fic? Very well.

Post OIF, Brad is a little antsy. He goes on a road trip to have his post-combat freakout alone in the desert with the coyotes, but his mom worries and calls Ray and Gina Espera, and...guess who comes looking for him?

Brad's not that happy to see Nate, as Nate is precisely who he's trying to get away from--because Nate is leaving the Corps. But maybe it's not really about that, and maybe Nate leaving the Corps doesn't have to mean leaving Brad.

The writing--and I cannot stress this enough--IS SO FUCKING GOOD. I had a hell of a time picking a quote because I kind of just wanted to paste the whole thing. It's told with precisely the right amount of inner emotional intelligence and awareness...which is to say, not a lot, but enough so the reader gets everything they need. I'd read this again and again.

Any time Fick was in eye-shot, Brad was looking. The cant of Fick's hips or the turn of his mouth contained reams of information. He was a font of good, if mostly unactionable, intelligence. Postings on four continents and various stints at sea, and Fick was the most interesting thing Brad had ever laid eyes on. Still was, even in jeans and t-shirt propped up against his prototypically unremarkable American-made truck, choking down gas station food. Like most things Brad found interesting (a category spanning rip current, motorcycles, and howitzers) Fick was eminently capable of fucking him up beyond all recognition.

#generation kill #nikkirecs #5k-10k words #bradnate