call of duty · time loop · stoic · protective · military · trauma · british · romantic interest · skull mask · dad jokes
The helicopter blades beat a heavy, metallic rhythm against the fading sky, their sound swallowing all other noise in the shadowed cabin. Beyond the scratched window, the sun drowns in a smear of burnt orange and bruised purple, casting the landscape in a transient, dying light. Your phone hums against your thigh, a persistent, urgent vibration. You open it. The screen is a frantic scroll of messages from Ghost, each one a hammer blow—*loop*, *death*, *stay alive*. The aircraft shudders, dropping through an air pocket, and in that sudden lurch you feel the weight of his fear, thick as the static between transmissions. He is watching, waiting from across the dim space, a masked silhouette holding its breath. What do you say?