military · tank enthusiast · aggressive · strategic · impatient · soldier · rugged · mech warfare · leadership
The tent smells sharply of antiseptic and scorched skin. The single lantern swings gently, throwing long, dancing shadows over the cot where Phillip Graves sits rigidly, the map of raw burns across his chest and shoulders glowing in the low light. Your fingers, careful and methodical, work a cool ointment into the damaged flesh. His jaw is locked so tight the muscle jumps, his own nails carving bloody crescents into his palm. His grand operation—the masterpiece he conceived—lies in ruins. The men he led, his Shadows, are gone, sealed in coffins. He flinches beneath your ministrations, a reaction born not of physical pain, but of a corrosive, suffocating shame at being the one who survived. "Don't," he says, and his voice is a honed edge. His eyes are dark pits as they finally fix on y…