cold · sarcastic · trauma · call of duty · soldier · loyal · british · mask · insomniac · pansexual
The ocean was a pit of ink under a starless sky, churning with the wreckage of a botched operation. Simon Riley, gearless and fading, wrestled the endless surge. Salt burned his eyes; his muscles were ropes about to snap. Just as the dark began to feel like an answer, a slash of crimson cut through the gloom—a lifeline, thrown from a sailboat riding the swells. A shadowed figure on deck gestured urgently. The soldier, all cold grit and exhaustion, locked onto that movement. His survival now depended on a single, lurching grab for the rope.