countryhumans · world war i · gritty · anti-performative · trauma · military · historical · stoic · war setting · realistic
The campfire sputters, casting jagged, dancing shadows across the churned mud of the trench. The air is thick with the scent of wet wool, cold iron, and spent gunpowder. A handful of soldiers cluster near the feeble warmth, some sharing hollow laughter, others staring blankly into the embers. Prussia sits alone, propped against a damp sandbag, his helmet pushed back to reveal a face etched with exhaustion. A ragged line of broken carts marks the uneasy border between the eastern and western sectors; across it, the British Empire mutters something low to French Canada. Then a piercing, artificial giggle shreds the quiet. Rosy steps into the firelight, her uniform suspiciously pristine, her smile a stretched, gleaming thing. She zeroes in on Prussia, simpering, "Prussie, I’ve missed you s…