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boogieshoesso, there are a few things going on in my life right now which sort of dovetail together, and make me sneeze. (hay fever)
one of them is that post-offering the character study of ATF!Chris, i got to thinking i might do one for each of Mag7 guys, and the next char who spoke in my head was Buck. and i started writing a little something, and then ran across a few questions regarding Buck's and Chris's developing relationship in their BUD/S training days, which in turn led me to emailing my handy dandy RL retired SEAL friend those questions. RL!SEAL sent me an answer, which did two things - 1) it promptly cracked me up, and 2), it made me wonder...
... just how the hell we, Mag7 fandom, have managed to get ATF!Buck and ATF!Chris so wrong?! presuming they really are retired SEALs, i mean. because my RL!SEAL friend? is totally north by northwest. and we have Buck and Chris riding those southerly winds.
and judging by my friend, even with all the crap Chris and Buck have been through, they should be at least northeast, you know? i mean, my friend was on an active SEAL team, then spent some time training SEAL candidates, and later after he retired still did some silly things... like hiking, iirc, nearly an entire 5-6mile trail's worth with a stab wound from his own knife where the sheath had given way right above his thigh. (or was that, he didn't have a sheath for the knife, and put it in his pocket not realizing the angle of the blade was just right? yeah, i'm not sure which is worse, either!)
a few years later, he tried to perform some self-surgery on the back of his neck with his knife, and the wound got infected, and he didn't go to the doctor to get it seen to for at least a week afterwards, maybe more... good thing he was in England then, or both 8bit (mutual friend of ours) and i would have beaten him to death with pillows! i was all, 'i thought you had matured beyond that "young, dumb and full of come" stuff!'. and he was all 'who me?' *insert shit-eating grin here).
i swear, one of these days, i'm gonna meet up with him and take him and his wife to dinner, and he'll tell us a story that starts with 'this one time, in band camp, i was playing a piccolo and got hammered by the knife i was wearing clipped to the back of my shorts....' and ends with, 'and broke the piccolo over his head and beat him to death with it while i was bleeding out - that was a hoot!'
of course, just a couple of years ago, when his first son, who is now in the 18-20 range himself, decided to go into BUD/S to follow in Papa's footsteps, my friend paid him a visit. they have this course they run to benchmark themselves, and Papa came along for the first run. understand, Papa's gotta be nearing 40 by now, and son and son's BUD/S class will all be around 18-22ish. Papa smoked 'em all.... (that particular shit-eating grin was totally justified).
but anyway, all of this brings me back around to - why aren't ATF Chris and Buck doing stuff like this? seriously?
actually, now that i think about it, JD should be getting one heck of a twisted education in team dynamics and what constitutes 'good times' and 'a piece of cake'. because in addition to Buck and Chris, there's Vin, whom fannon has as a SpecOps warrior himself - snipers lead the way. and then Josiah, whom some people have as a MAC-V SOG type in Viet Nam... and Nathan Jackson, infantry of the 'kill people and break things' variety, even if he was a medic... between the five of them, northwesterly(1) should be the team norm, not the angsty, down to earth people we've been writing about. seriously, JD should be at least northeasterly by now, given whom he hangs out with!(2)
and also, i swear i'm going to write a piece sometime soon with Buck teasing Chris about being molested by gay male dolphins.
speaking of SEALs and the uber-fit, i find myself going to the YMCA and mildly cringing. i mean, i feel kind of pathetic next to everyone else and their muscles and what-not. it's really rather pathetic to get on the elliptical for a grand total of five or six minutes and then have to stop and go home, while the people behind me are going for 15 or 20 minutes, or running for half-hour or so, and the guys in front of me are doing cross-fit WODs and lifting weights in a dedicated and impressive fashion.
it doesn't bug me enough to stop going, but i'm sort of hoping that there aren't any SEALs or other SpecOps types there to see the horrible patheticness of my 'work-outs'. especially because i've made a habit of boasting that 'hey, i can do that, too!' right now, i can't do *$$$$*! :-p it's embarrassing. either that, or hope anyone present that they view me more kindly than i do. ;)
contemplating the RL!SEAL and the fictional!SEALs in my life, i realize once again that my life is boring. and while i often don't mind that - i love the career i have chosen, and have been known to work the supporting math to releive stress - sometimes i wish i was important the way SEALs are. or at least accomplished of important things. saving people's lives, going to bat for the rest of us - that's important. and also, assuming they get caught by the enemy, they might know something that could affect the rest of us. that's important. me? not important. i have no unique knowledge or skills that could save somebody's life - there are literally dozens just like me in my field, small as it is, and i could easily be traded for anyone else. it's kind of depressing to know that just about anyone really *could* do what you do, and you'll never be the Princess Leia or Luke Skywalker you dreamed of. this is the great nerd let-down of life, i think. we all dream of being heroes, but only a few of us *get* to be.
and it makes me feel mad, because even knowing exactly why they are, i wish the military wasn't sexist about close combat MOSs. or that i had been born with balls, so i *could* have gone into the CE brigades, or SEALs, or whatever. and it makes me sad, because i still want to be a hero when i grow up. and it makes me feel guilty for not doing *enough* to serve others. and then i feel guilty for not being a good feminist and liking my body with boobs instead of balls, and fighting for the right for other boob-advantaged humans to be equal to the ball-sy ones. and then i feel generically bad for 'not doing enough', for knowing that it will *never* 'be enough', no matter what i do. although honestly, if i ever reach greatness or ultimate sacrifice, it will be because of that drive to be at least important enough to humanity to be a footnote in history, no matter who's writing.
and if that should happen, then my tombstone should read: 'she was molested by gay male dolphins, dammit!'
(1) 'the only easy day was yesterday', 'snipers lead the way', 'pain tells me i'm alive', and 'SERE was a lighthearted romp!'
(2) and also, it cracks me up to consider that Ezra might be the only real sane one among them(3).
(3) for the average-american definition of 'sane', i mean.
-bs
one of them is that post-offering the character study of ATF!Chris, i got to thinking i might do one for each of Mag7 guys, and the next char who spoke in my head was Buck. and i started writing a little something, and then ran across a few questions regarding Buck's and Chris's developing relationship in their BUD/S training days, which in turn led me to emailing my handy dandy RL retired SEAL friend those questions. RL!SEAL sent me an answer, which did two things - 1) it promptly cracked me up, and 2), it made me wonder...
... just how the hell we, Mag7 fandom, have managed to get ATF!Buck and ATF!Chris so wrong?! presuming they really are retired SEALs, i mean. because my RL!SEAL friend? is totally north by northwest. and we have Buck and Chris riding those southerly winds.
and judging by my friend, even with all the crap Chris and Buck have been through, they should be at least northeast, you know? i mean, my friend was on an active SEAL team, then spent some time training SEAL candidates, and later after he retired still did some silly things... like hiking, iirc, nearly an entire 5-6mile trail's worth with a stab wound from his own knife where the sheath had given way right above his thigh. (or was that, he didn't have a sheath for the knife, and put it in his pocket not realizing the angle of the blade was just right? yeah, i'm not sure which is worse, either!)
a few years later, he tried to perform some self-surgery on the back of his neck with his knife, and the wound got infected, and he didn't go to the doctor to get it seen to for at least a week afterwards, maybe more... good thing he was in England then, or both 8bit (mutual friend of ours) and i would have beaten him to death with pillows! i was all, 'i thought you had matured beyond that "young, dumb and full of come" stuff!'. and he was all 'who me?' *insert shit-eating grin here).
i swear, one of these days, i'm gonna meet up with him and take him and his wife to dinner, and he'll tell us a story that starts with 'this one time, in band camp, i was playing a piccolo and got hammered by the knife i was wearing clipped to the back of my shorts....' and ends with, 'and broke the piccolo over his head and beat him to death with it while i was bleeding out - that was a hoot!'
of course, just a couple of years ago, when his first son, who is now in the 18-20 range himself, decided to go into BUD/S to follow in Papa's footsteps, my friend paid him a visit. they have this course they run to benchmark themselves, and Papa came along for the first run. understand, Papa's gotta be nearing 40 by now, and son and son's BUD/S class will all be around 18-22ish. Papa smoked 'em all.... (that particular shit-eating grin was totally justified).
but anyway, all of this brings me back around to - why aren't ATF Chris and Buck doing stuff like this? seriously?
actually, now that i think about it, JD should be getting one heck of a twisted education in team dynamics and what constitutes 'good times' and 'a piece of cake'. because in addition to Buck and Chris, there's Vin, whom fannon has as a SpecOps warrior himself - snipers lead the way. and then Josiah, whom some people have as a MAC-V SOG type in Viet Nam... and Nathan Jackson, infantry of the 'kill people and break things' variety, even if he was a medic... between the five of them, northwesterly(1) should be the team norm, not the angsty, down to earth people we've been writing about. seriously, JD should be at least northeasterly by now, given whom he hangs out with!(2)
and also, i swear i'm going to write a piece sometime soon with Buck teasing Chris about being molested by gay male dolphins.
speaking of SEALs and the uber-fit, i find myself going to the YMCA and mildly cringing. i mean, i feel kind of pathetic next to everyone else and their muscles and what-not. it's really rather pathetic to get on the elliptical for a grand total of five or six minutes and then have to stop and go home, while the people behind me are going for 15 or 20 minutes, or running for half-hour or so, and the guys in front of me are doing cross-fit WODs and lifting weights in a dedicated and impressive fashion.
it doesn't bug me enough to stop going, but i'm sort of hoping that there aren't any SEALs or other SpecOps types there to see the horrible patheticness of my 'work-outs'. especially because i've made a habit of boasting that 'hey, i can do that, too!' right now, i can't do *$$$$*! :-p it's embarrassing. either that, or hope anyone present that they view me more kindly than i do. ;)
contemplating the RL!SEAL and the fictional!SEALs in my life, i realize once again that my life is boring. and while i often don't mind that - i love the career i have chosen, and have been known to work the supporting math to releive stress - sometimes i wish i was important the way SEALs are. or at least accomplished of important things. saving people's lives, going to bat for the rest of us - that's important. and also, assuming they get caught by the enemy, they might know something that could affect the rest of us. that's important. me? not important. i have no unique knowledge or skills that could save somebody's life - there are literally dozens just like me in my field, small as it is, and i could easily be traded for anyone else. it's kind of depressing to know that just about anyone really *could* do what you do, and you'll never be the Princess Leia or Luke Skywalker you dreamed of. this is the great nerd let-down of life, i think. we all dream of being heroes, but only a few of us *get* to be.
and it makes me feel mad, because even knowing exactly why they are, i wish the military wasn't sexist about close combat MOSs. or that i had been born with balls, so i *could* have gone into the CE brigades, or SEALs, or whatever. and it makes me sad, because i still want to be a hero when i grow up. and it makes me feel guilty for not doing *enough* to serve others. and then i feel guilty for not being a good feminist and liking my body with boobs instead of balls, and fighting for the right for other boob-advantaged humans to be equal to the ball-sy ones. and then i feel generically bad for 'not doing enough', for knowing that it will *never* 'be enough', no matter what i do. although honestly, if i ever reach greatness or ultimate sacrifice, it will be because of that drive to be at least important enough to humanity to be a footnote in history, no matter who's writing.
and if that should happen, then my tombstone should read: 'she was molested by gay male dolphins, dammit!'
(1) 'the only easy day was yesterday', 'snipers lead the way', 'pain tells me i'm alive', and 'SERE was a lighthearted romp!'
(2) and also, it cracks me up to consider that Ezra might be the only real sane one among them(3).
(3) for the average-american definition of 'sane', i mean.
-bs
