#goddamnit i'm emotional about a ww2 military captain AGAIN

[freddiekluger]

the captain, pre-war (bbc Ghosts HEADCANON)

i saw a fan theory somewhere that the captain, considering his relatively low rank compared to his age, enlisted in the army ww2 and someone suggested he could have been a teacher? i can’t remember the source (will link if i find it), but i fell in love with this idea and aciddentally came up with a whole (gay) backstory- enjoy!

- in his younger years before the second great war, the captain was a history teacher at a mid-range boys secondary school (he has a preference for modern history with a focus on the machines of the industrial revolution and first world war)

- we’ve all seen his leadership style with the other ghosts- he falls somewhere on the scale between strict headmaster and do-what-you-want-as-long-as-you-don’t-get-caught, just don’t complain about the content or you’ll be listening to lectures on the influence of the Watt high-pressure engine until your ears bleed

- the school manages to scramble together enough funds (thanks Great Depression) to hire a new sports coach/groundskeeper/handyman/shop teacher. while the school is supposed to encourage more traditionally academic pursuits, jobs are scarce and some of the students just aren’t suited to law and medicine and all the rest, so a couple of boys can always be found hanging out in the new teacher’s shed-turned-office fiddling around with scraps of wood and metal, learning how to build a radio, or generally avoiding their studies

- naturally, the captain volunteers to welcome the new hire (read: he was the only one who gave enough of a shit to actually check on the new guy)

- the two gradually become friends, the captain sends a few troublemakers down to the new teacher to give them something other than disturbing the class to focus their excess energy on- new guy is really warm and open, and seems to get on well with the students 

- captain and the teacher are always finding excuses to drop by each other’s classrooms, a light in the captain’s room always seems to be breaking so the new teacher decides to show him how to fix it (which, already being into technology, the captain LOVES, so new teacher ends up showing him all sorts of things about practical engineering when they can find a spare moment)

- this is a real slow burn thing, but a while down the track after a particularly harrowing school day (one of the boys blew up the shed, an angry parent rampage, who knows) teacher invites captain back to his apartment for a drink. it’s very clearly with ~intentions~, but we know the captain is a bit oblivious so he’s just like ‘alright, i will go join my very good friend with whom i am so affectionate that i even attempt to crack jokes to make him laugh, despite my attempts at humour not often working, i look forward to a simple scotch with my platonic coworker before returning home, jolly good’

- anyways, they get a bit tipsy, unload about the day, it’s the 1930s so the electric lighting is romantically dim, they’re probably sitting in front of a fireplace chatting away

- we have the trope where the captain says something particular and adorably captain-y, and those alcohol-lowered inhibitions mean the teacher just goes in for the kiss. captain is obviously stunned and the teacher pulls away, but since captain has downed a few scotches, his usual pretences have fallen away, and after a moment he decides 'fuck it' and returns with more intensity. (cue the classy cut away where we KNOW what happens next)

- the next morning, the teacher wakes up first and smiles at a sleeping captain in his bed before stumbling into the shower, but by the time he returns the captain is gone

- captain’s absent from school for a week, and when he finally returns the teacher spots captain in his classroom packing his things into a crate (they were all out of boxes, so he’s just pasted some newspaper over the holes, but it’s thin and shitty so items keep falling through and clanging loudly on the floor, ruining any tension)

- the teacher comes in and tries to talk about what happened, but between the model planes hitting the floor and the captain’s flat out denial, it’s not succesful- the captain tells him he’s leaving to work at another school to be closer to his very ill mother, who’s got “a terrible case of Deskink’s disease” (yes, the captain did just look at a desk and then an inkwell to make up the very obviously fake excuse)

- “you know, the other night when we-” “i’m quite sure i don’t know what you mean. you invited me round, we had a drink, and then i went to bed. in my own home, just me and the hot water bottle... *ahem*”

- the captain leaves for god knows where and represses the whole experience (by the 1930s we’re at the height of the cultural shift from concepts of sexuality being behaviourally based to the idea of an innate identity, so that mixed with the capatains ‘mental fortitude’ makes it entirely possible for him to mental gymnastics his way into at least half believing he’s a heterosexual) things start to escalate over in Germany where he enlists and evenually meets lieutenant havers. the captain is very, very careful never to drink around him.