#many many references were collected in the making of this

[anothercrisis]

could we possibly get some more civilians au hcs? i read through all of them and now i’m invested

Wake up! I’m alive and still brainrotting about the civvie au!

What I would like to talk about today is the way I managed to include the callsigns and ranks :)

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During their childhood in the foster care system, Johnny and Kyle didn’t have many constants, apart from each other. Every situation was different, every home had a different set of rules. In some, they weren’t allowed to watch television, which was one of the rules they hated to discover the most. Stories were oftentimes the only times they got a break from the reality they lived in. And their abilities to read were still developing at this time, so turning to books didn’t always work.

Johnny learned to read before Gaz, who struggled then explained to Johnny that the words never stayed in the right order when he was trying to read them, so Johnny took to reading out-loud so his brother could enjoy the stories too.

They often read the same book, one that Johnny lifted from a particularly horrible man who’d had custody of them for a grand total of six hours (which was six hours too long in Johnny’s opinion, which is why he quickly evacuated Kyle and himself from the property) and that he’s kept with him ever since. It was a collection of military stories that told of brave men fighting hard battles and overcoming difficult situations. The book had been in the children’s room Johnny and Kyle had been locked in, on the small shelf stocked with similar books for the foster children to read. Johnny had impulsively shoved it into his bag before climbing out the window simply because of the way the cover made him feel brave.

Those stories allowed Johnny and Kyle to adopt the mindsets of soldiers, helped them cope and make sense of their difficult situation.

“Kyle is a soldier and I’m his Captain. ‘Tis ma job to look after ‘im and I can’t do that when this fucked system keeps separatin’ us.”

By this time, Johnny was building himself quite the reputation. The social workers started to refer to him as “Soap” because of how efficient he was at slipping himself out and then in to homes whenever he was separated from Kyle and how he never left a trail behind him to follow if he didn’t want to. Johnny accepted the nickname with pride. From then on, whenever a social worker said, with a deep sigh, that Soap was back into their hands after another failed placement, he would grin and say, “Tha’s Captain Soap to ye.”.

Shortly after, Johnny decided Kyle needed to have a nickname too; he wanted them to sound like the package deal they were and the nicknames would further connect them. So Kyle decided on “Gaz”. He didn’t want anything elaborate or goofy like “Soap”. And Johnny doesn’t know it, but Gaz is what Kyle’s little brother had called him before the accident. And then, since Johnny was the one looking after Kyle and therefore the one of higher rank, they decided Kyle was to be Sergeant Gaz.

Maybe it’s silly and stupid, maybe they don’t outgrow it as soon as they ought, but it quickly became the best and most effective way they have ever found to cope. It becomes something like a mantra, a prayer: we are soldiers, we are brave, and we will handle whatever is thrown at us with strength and courage.

A few years later, Johnny meets Simon. Simon, the boy who walks so lightly that his footsteps can’t be heard even by Johnny who long ago trained his ears to hear footsteps. Simon, the boy who starts to show up on Johnny’s doorstep unannounced, pale, and quiet, simply looking for better company. Simon, who becomes “Ghost” when Johnny accidentally points this behavior out to him.

“Nothin’ to be sorry ‘bout, Si. I happen to like the Ghost too. He’s a good listener, and ya know how I run ma mouth.”

In further attempts to comfort, Johnny decides Simon might also need the absurd bit of comfort that comes with pretending to be a soldier. Because if you can pretend you’re brave for long enough, maybe it will come true. So Soap decides Simon will be Lieutenant Ghost. (When Kyle asks why Simon has a higher rank than him, the answer is because Simon is older, has fought harder battles for longer, and because Johnny will need his skills to keep them all safe.)

Once Johnny and Kyle’s coping method has been brought to the attention of the group, they all insist on getting callsigns and ranks too. Johnny, as the captain and therefore the man in charge, comes up with both for their other two friends. Alex Keller, their next door neighbor, and Gary Sanderson, Alex’s school friend who lives a few minutes away by bicycle that immediately got adopted into the group, are both dubbed sergeants too. Johnny had secretly filed away nickname options for both boys because he was hoping for an opportunity like this. They come to the decision that Gary will be “Roach”, for the way he can be relied upon to be in the kitchen cooking or snacking and for the way he likes to sit on the tops of surfaces, and that Alex will be “Echo”, for the way he is always repeating Gary’s sentences for him because he speaks so softly that Alex, who has years of training, is usually the only one who hears him enough to decipher the words.

They take to using the nicknames pretty quickly, enjoying the bond it represents between them all. But the ranks are understood to be more of a joke until the anniversary of Kyle’s brother’s death comes around and he shuts himself up in his room. Johnny simply explains to their friends that “Sergeant Gaz is on leave for the time being,” and they easily understand that to mean Kyle is battling something and isn’t ready to share it with them. No more further explanation is needed, easy as that. So, from then on, whenever one of them is struggling with something, simple phrases like that alert the others without the pressure of having to explain if they don’t want to or aren’t sure how. It’s a code among them, a slow developing language that allows them to express themselves and their struggles to each other when they aren’t capable of using plain language.

And maybe others would think it juvenile, this coping method and way of communicating, but that doesn’t matter to them. Life has tossed them around in ways no one should have to be tossed around and these boys create a safe space for themselves in the ways they find work best for them. It just so happens that their biggest comfort comes in the shape of their military personas and one another.