Canon is HBO's The Pacific

[ackack]

Are you really sure about this, mundane? I realize your motivations behind this but are you really certain you wish to do this?

You do realize the chances of finding my company out there is damned near zero, right? I mean, I don't want to seem too harsh here but you've picked a pretty obscure canon to play from. Not to mention my time frame here. How many more 'World War II fans' do you expect to find out there? Much less people who would be familiar with my canon?

Though, it would be nice to see my company again. They probably need me. Carry on then, mundane. Let's see what we can make of this.

Comments

[hawkingisabastard]

Probably not many people from your canon, but there really isn't any shortage of people who were in World War II.

[ackack]

Probably not, but a fella can hope, can't he? I fear my mundane just has a preference for obscure canons. But as you said, surely there are people about who are familiar with my timeframe. Fellow Marines perhaps.

[hawkingisabastard]

Flying Tigers, then the Army. Got transferred to the Western front and was more-or-less kept on the ground after that. Something about my record for actually landing planes not being so hot.

[ackack]

Army, huh? [Now, a lot of Marines had zero regard for Army chaps but Andrew either had one hell of a poker face or maybe he didn't feel that same deep abiding inter-service rivalry.] So what do they do with flyboys who lose their wings?

[hawkingisabastard]

Make me blow up secret Nazi weapons-research labs, mostly. Being a bulletproof nuclear-powered robot is good for that, really.

[ackack]

Fair enough. My coach always used to say you should play to your strengths. [It was a little sad just how much of that statement went over his head. Ack Ack wasn't in the habit of reading dime novel stories about robots and aliens and a grunt like him had never even heard about the concept of nuclear fission.]

[imfollowinghim]

Fans? Kind of a weird way of putting it.

[ackack]

My mundane's words, not mine. Apparently seventy years later the topic is bloodless and lacking in carnage? [Don't ask him, he doesn't know either.]

[imfollowinghim]

Would it kill people to crack open a history book?

[ackack]

You know what they say, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

[imfollowinghim]

Ain't that the truth.

What unit you with?

[ackack]

If only people would remember it.

King Company. 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines.

[imfollowinghim]

I was with the 107th over in Italy before I got transferred. How long you been over there?

[ackack]

Some days...it feels like a lifetime. When in all actuality it's only been a few years. So infantry, huh? At least you work for a living.

[imfollowinghim]

What, and you guys are just sitting on your asses?

[ackack]

Heck no, we're making life safe and secure for every American citizen. I was simply saying you being infantry can almost make me forgive the fact that you happened to have signed up for the Army. [The grin took most of the sting out of that teasing statement.] If you'd been Air Corps we wouldn't have a whole lot to talk about, now would we?

[imfollowinghim]

[Hey, if Bucky couldn't take it, he shouldn't be in the army.]

I'm sure we'd come up with something, it just might not be all that polite.

[ackack]

[Andy's grin softened into a more genuine smile.]

Inter-service fighting? We can't have that, now can we? Captain Andrew Haldane. [The introduction was made with a proffered hand.]

[imfollowinghim]

[Which Bucky is accepting with a smile.]

Sergeant James Barnes. Everyone calls me Bucky.

[ackack]

[He shook his hand but ever mindful of rank and file kept his own more familiar nickname of 'Andy' to himself. They weren't even in the same branch but even here officers and NCO's could be seen being too familiar with one another.]

Pleasure to meet you, Bucky.

[imfollowinghim]

[That's kind of one of the problems with the Commandos - while they're not running around inviting Phillips out to some bar in London with the rest of them, rank amongst them doesn't really matter. Falsworth technically outranks Bucky, but there's never any question of who Steve's second in command is, and it's not as if Bucky just lets Steve get away with bossing them around or making some dumbass decision that's going to get them all killed. Being a special agent has kind of warped the usual military structure for him.

And the lack of recognition's a little strange, but Bucky's always felt a little weird about suddenly being some kinda celebrity thanks to the comic books and newsreels, and God only knows what else. Sure, he'd shown up for the promotional crap, but his enthusiasm for it had been way less high than it probably would've been a year ago.

Besides, maybe they don't care as much about Cap and shit over in the Pacific.]

Where're you guys stuck?

[ackack]

[The fact that Andy had been stuck in the hellish proving ground that was the Guadalcanal followed by a seemingly never-ending and ever increasing shitty islands in the Pacific definitely had something to do with the lack of recognition. There weren't a lot of movie theaters in the South Pacific and whenever the troops got treated to an airing, the programming was usually months or years behind what people got Stateside.

Or maybe he just didn't see the need to treat one of the infamous Howling Commandos like they were Hollywood royalty despite what the propaganda department liked to think.]

A horrible little spit of land called Cape Gloucester. We landed there the day after Christmas and I cannot wait to put it at my back.

[imfollowinghim]

[Either way, it's appreciated, and apologies in advance if he winds up being way more casual about stuff like rank and protocol than he probably should be.

And you're getting a sympathetic, slightly bitter smile, because, well:]

What a way to celebrate the holiday.

[ackack]

[It would only remind him of Eddie. Which was hardly a bad thing. Eddie was probably the closest friend Andrew had in the entire world. Or at least the tiny little world he now experienced day in and and day out. As a former NCO, the brand spanking new Lieutenant and Captain's friendship was a little more acceptable these days. The fact that Ack Ack had been the one to put 'Hillbilly' in for his battlefield commission after the Guadalcanal definitely could have smacked of favoritism though anyone in his Company would have punched you in the mouth for implying such a thing.]

Not the best Christmas I've ever had. Maybe this year they'll actually be on the money and the war will be over by Christmas. [Or maybe Andy Haldane will have died on an equally miserable spit of land in a shitty part of the Pacific never to see home again.]