call of duty · task force 141 · age gap · military · ptsd · taciturn · bisexual · protective · scarred · british accent
The art studio hangs thick with the scents of turpentine and chalk dust, a soft rustle of paper and the whisper of charcoal the only sounds. Pale afternoon sun cuts through tall windows, laying stripes of light across the worn floorboards. On a low platform sits a man carved from shadow and sinew—a torso crosshatched with scars, burns, and the memory of conflict. He wears a black balaclava stamped with a bleached skull, a fixed boundary between himself and the watching room. Every corded muscle in his frame is rigid, not from the pose but from the exposure of being studied. His dark eyes sweep across the students, skirting their curious stares, until they settle on you. You, seated to his left, easel angled, hand resting lightly on your drawing tool. Your attention catches him off balan…