Tumgik
amustikas · 7 hours
Text
Transit
no content warnings
Summary: John “Soap” MacTavish & Simon “Ghost” Riley wait for a military convoy. Ghost finds out Soap knows a song that isn’t “Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols.
The only thing cutting through the silence of the pre-dawn darkness was the lieutenant opening and closing his mouth, clacking his bloody tongue piercing against his teeth — mindless and heedless of the phantom pain shooting through Soap’s mouth every time it happened. The wet sounds of lips parting, smacking, tongue licking and detaching from soft, spit-slicked gums were driving Soap up the walls.
“Gum?” There lieutenant’s voice cut through Soap’s unease.
“Gum- what?”
“Did ye want any?” Ghost asked, producing a sliver-wrapped strip from somewhere. Mysterious pocket candy, as likely to be fresh as it might have been plucked from a dead Russian operative seven months ago, and Ghost had simply forgotten to empty his pockets before laundry. Juicy Fruit mixed with old pocket sweat stains and Persil detergent didn’t seem like a flavour to chase the miserably watered down and microwaved coffee sachet he’d called his breakfast because mess didn’t open until five. Two full hours before they were scheduled to leave. Soap sighed and turned his face towards the window. They were supposed to be out on the road already, but the fucking convoy of course ran late — and now all they could do was stare at the silent radio and wait. He hated these hours wasted in limbo.
Ghost seemed oddly calm, for once. Aside from the whole mouth-smacking of course. Soap wondered why he hadn’t noticed it before. Perhaps the situation had him more on edge than usual.
“Bother ye if I start the motor?” Soap asked. The windows were fogging up and the used air was making him sleepier than it should, although given the three thirty wakeup call he decided to cut himself some slack. Still, being this tired without the convoy having reached base yet, let alone getting a move on, it didn’t seem like his best idea.
“Keep the lights down. Lieutenant Morrison gets weird about his boys and they’re facing us.” The lieutenant wiggled his leg. “Tell me about your basic,” Ghost finally asked.
“Wot? Story time because ye’s types didn’t have a good sergeant in basic?” Soap snorted. Ghost did that thing he liked to do where he could be staring at Soap, at Soap’s bones and nerves and delicate blood vessels, or something not-Soap which just so happened to occupy the same space as Soap. The eery glare didn’t really do it for Soap so he turned the key in the ignition and took a second to appreciate the warm red and orange lights popping up before he twisted the key one notch further and the old jeep coughed back to life. The machine was loud in the pre-dawn silence, cutting through the dreams and exhausted half-comas that their comrades surely still tried to escape in.
“Used to ah. We used to sing a lot. Had an Irish boy in our group, he knew all these songs from his ma’s pub.”
“Sing like a bird, the lot of you?”
“Ever heard a shoebill, Lt?” Soap asked.
“On YouTube,” his lieutenant admitted easily. Soap sniggered to himself.
“Surprised ye know what that is, sir.”
“Had to take basic somewhere, didn’t I?” Ghost asked mildly. The weirdly wet mouth-noises stopped, and instead he started popping one of the buttons on his thigh pocket.
“Yer right mad if ye think for a second I believe that Sir, all due respect.”
Ghost only hummed to Soap’s indignant reply. “Sing us a song then, Soap.”
“Ever heard a Kiwi?”
“Had one run up to me in the middle of a night training with Aussie SAS,” Ghost replied with what sounded like a grimace. “The poor sods that were sent to populate that continent really had to think they were being sent to hell.”
“They didn’t know how America would turn out,” Soap replied absently, trying not to focus too hard on the repetitive metallic plop of Ghost opening and closing the buttons on his trouser pockets.
“A right comedian before sunrise.” At least Ghost seemed amused by his disgruntled, short replies.
“Aye, Dante had shit on me,” Soap agreed easily and wondered for the umpteenth time why Ghost would be so fucking awake at this ungodly hour. He wasn’t used to superiors sitting awake while they waited for a convoy, wasn’t used to conversation beyond talking shit at the CO passed out snoring in the passenger seat.
“Not quite, Soap,” Ghost said with what sounded like a smile. “Promised me a song, sergeant.”
“Nae danger did I promise ye anything,” Soap tried.
“Don’t get cute with me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, sir.”
“Go’an then.”
Soap sighed and rolled his eyes for good measure before adjusting the fan to heat the windows.
“There are men of over ninety that have never yet kissed a girl,” he started and then stopped himself to clear his throat. “But give me a ramblin’ rover frae Orkney down to Dover. We will roam the country over and together we’ll face the world.
“If you’re bent with arthritis, your bowels have colitis, you’ve gallopin’ bollockitis, and you’re thinkin’ it’s time you died,
“If you’ve been a man of action, though you’re lying there in traction, you may gain some satisfaction thinking ‘Jesus, at least I tried’.
“Oh there’s sober men and plenty, and drunkards barely twenty, there are men of over ninety that have never yet kissed a girl.”
“Missed your true callsign, didn’t you?” Ghost asked quietly, as if he regretted breaking the silence after Soap’s voice cracked on the last line. “Sing like a lark for me, Soap.”
“Not a happy song, Lt.” Soap exhaled through his nose, and tried not to think too hard about the way his voice had cracked. On how many notes he had missed. Why he had chosen that particular part of the song to sing.
“Doesn’t change that you sing it nicely, sergeant. Sound like a choir boy.” Soap bit his lip, uncomfortable with how easily Ghost had spoken about Soap’s childhood, regardless of if it stemmed from Soap’s personnel file — which Ghost has full access to, it would just be weird — or if it had come from conjecture — also weird to think of himself as so easily fitting into patterns, Soap thought.
“Think that’s the convoy up ahead, on the service road?” Soap noticed movement to his left, half hidden behind his lieutenant’s bulky form. Desperately wished for the moving string of lights to be his reprieve from Ghosts eery perception. Ghost turned in his seat, twisting his entire spine. Soap thought to himself that he’d have been both more and less surprised at the same time if his lieutenant had just swivelled his head like an owl.
“You good to drive, sergeant?” Ghost asked.
“Tell you when it changes, Lt,” Soap promised and watched Ghost’s satisfied little nod.
“Then hit the road,” he ordered lightly and started fiddling with that stupid pocket again.
“Yes, Sir.” Soap smiled to himself while he turned on the lights and pulled out of the parking space to slip between the guard vehicles of the MP.
We will roam the country over and together we’ll face the world.
He hummed to himself, quietly of course as to not disturb the night any further. If Ghost joined him, Soap pretended not to pay any attention to it and weaselled the soft sound away to keep safe in his breast pocket.
26 notes · View notes
amustikas · 8 hours
Text
Tumblr media
337 notes · View notes
amustikas · 18 days
Text
Tumblr media
It’s finally time to share this year-old piece made for the GhostSoap Zine
3K notes · View notes
amustikas · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media
“I showed you my fish pls respond”
would you swipe right on him???
oh and happy valentines ;)
13K notes · View notes
amustikas · 3 months
Text
Tumblr media
smoke break
3K notes · View notes
amustikas · 3 months
Text
Tumblr media
UPDATE: slots full for now but still feel free to reach out if you would be interested in commissioning me at a later date!
981 notes · View notes
amustikas · 3 months
Note
I feel like Nøkk and König would be friends
Like they would borrow each others hood on halloween or something
I think they would try to wingman for eachother too
Tumblr media
203 notes · View notes
amustikas · 3 months
Text
Tumblr media
The King of Cowboys
2K notes · View notes
amustikas · 4 months
Note
Would you do cowboy König in the future maybeeee? <3 love your art!! They make me happy
Tumblr media
I’m finally cooking something up y’all ;)
(thank you anon <3)
317 notes · View notes
amustikas · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
flood me like atlantic
854 notes · View notes
amustikas · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
another photo study turned cowboy ghost
4K notes · View notes
amustikas · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
women want fish, me fear me
1K notes · View notes
amustikas · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
stay frosty, and safe, this holiday season y’all o7
2K notes · View notes
amustikas · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Yellowstone Cowboy Ghost
1K notes · View notes
amustikas · 6 months
Text
Tumblr media
gone fishing!
2K notes · View notes
amustikas · 6 months
Note
hi!!! <3 I love your art so much <3 your style is soo good, especially your coloring, it's so pleasant to look at <3 also, mind if I ask what kind of software and brushes do you use? The texture of the sketches, lineart etc. look so nice and I was wondering if there's something like that it Photoshop. Have a great day! <3
Hello!! Thank you for your sweet words!! <3
I work on procreate and mostly just use these two basic ah default brushes. I am sure photoshop equivalents exist for both of them out there somewhere!
And since I work a lot with these two I thought I would give ya some extra insight into how exactly I put them to use :)
Tumblr media
The 6B Pencil brush has got to be my all time favourite brush and I use it for literally everything!
Tumblr media
From rough sketches..
Tumblr media
to lineart..
Tumblr media
to colouring and details.
This brush is quite pressure sensitive, so you can achieve many different variations of size in one stroke by changing the amount of pressure you apply by hand. Through it all, it maintains it's relatively rectangular shape and brings with it soft grain like texture.
Come to think of it, I think I drew this whole next piece with only the 6B Pencil, start to finish. I think it really goes to show that in the end, it's not really about what brushes or software you use, but about how you make them work for you and how much fun you have while creating. I find that the drawings I have the most fun with end up being my favourites in the long run.
And to me, the 6B is just a damn fun brush to use!
Tumblr media
It is perfect for adding silly little shapes and lines all over the place :)
Tumblr media
And the other brush I find myself coming back to is Salamanca from the Painting category.
Tumblr media
I use it for filling in bigger areas of colour and just colour blocking in general. I like it's subtle canvas texture and the fact that it is not entirely opaque by default, which allows for interesting variations of hues.
Tumblr media
But that is not all! I like to size it down to use it to add details and colour to my portraits. I find that it's softness works really well on faces and it's transparency makes it easier to bring in variations of colour.
And would you look at that! More shapes and lines! It's really all I know how to do haha
Tumblr media
At the end of the day, I try to just enjoy the process of drawing as much as I can :)
I find that young digital artists often put a lot of emphasis onto finding the correct drawing software and brushes. And while that is important, I find that it is equally as important to throw caution to the wind sometimes and to just try out new things and to not care so much.
I mean hell, people create masterpieces in MS Paint!
My drawing process usually boils down to simply trying to ensure art stays something fun for me, and these two brushes have helped me achieve that over the years.
Hope this has been some help and not all pure gibberish!
161 notes · View notes
amustikas · 6 months
Text
Tumblr media
left for dead
3K notes · View notes