[For Mathias & Veronica]

[thewordofweb]

After the strange personality happenstance and the obituary and the fight that came after that, I've come around to thinking that I'm long overdue for a nice bit of respite. Surfing, sunning, fishing from a dock (considering I'm trying to respect Joe's wishes by not going out too deep), and sticking around friends. Today's plans involve checking on Mathias and I'm heading in the direction of his place with a bag filled with the provisions for surfing.

And possibly a quarter of the cookies Joe baked off while he was feeling...'under the weather' so to speak. It's a good day, though. For all my recent emotional turmoil, it's a decent day and maybe today I can convince Mathias to drop me by and meet this new girlfriend of his.

After all, he'd been ever so eager to talk about her before. "Mathias!" I call warmly as I arrive. "You in?"

Comments

[plantfood]

It's easy to forget that Webster has come from such a different time than he has and it's only when he says such things that Mathias makes himself think of everything his friend has gone through. He feels guilty for it, but he's relieved there was never a need to go to war while he was enlisted.

"It's easier to avoid that here," he says.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Which war? If you don't mind me asking." There are those who, saying such things, might strike Veronica as self-righteous - there's a certain pretension, not in suffering, but in laying claim to it, which she knows well - but it's to Webster's credit that he doesn't. He's a man who's seen terrible things. He's in good company that way.

[thewordofweb.livejournal.com]

"Well, it didn't have a name back when I'm from," I clarify first, because I don't want to sound as if I've been naming things. "But I enlisted with the paratroopers in 1942. I was off to war in '44 and it was early April of 1945 when I got here." I don't smile now, not anymore, still remembering that day and Janovec's death, his blood still on my hands.

[plantfood]

"The Second World War," Mathias murmurs, although he's sure by the dates that Veronica has figured that out for herself already. It still unsettles him in a way, knowing Webster has seen those awful things, remembering the stories his grandparents had told him of bombings.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

Veronica's brow raises and she nods absently. "Seems like there's a lot of veterans of that one around here these days," she says. It's hard to have anything but respect for the deed, at least, and strange to think of. She serves alongside Winters and he can't be even a decade older than her.

[thewordofweb.livejournal.com]

"Those would be the aforementioned loud roommates," I smoothly admit, without missing a beat. "For the most part. Easy Company has a tendency to turn up in groups places. It's annoying and relished at once. And I have to be grateful especially for some of them being here."

[plantfood]

Mathias frowns thoughtfully at that, then looks over at Webster. "Are all the vets from the Second World War people you know?" he asks, wondering how that works. It was a big war, spanning too many years for that to be just coincidence and although Mathias himself has no real interest in researching the reasons behind the arrivals, he's sure someone must.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

It's too big a coincidence for it to encompass all of them, logically speaking, but Veronica's been around long enough to understand that logic doesn't always have a lot to do with it; or, rather, the island has a logic of its own by which it operates. As much as it galls her, she hasn't yet figured it all out. "Winters, too?"

[thewordofweb.livejournal.com]

"He was Captain Winters when I was shot and by the time the war was ending in Europe, he was Major Winters, yes," I agree with a fond smile on my face. "While he wasn't my favorite officer, he was one of the best there was." But I don't think anyone can compare to Lieutenant Lipton and Captain Speirs. They seemed to be born for the tasks they were appointed. "I've met people from other wars, just none from the one I'm in, unless they're Easy company. Well, with one exception. The man that carved a desk for me...Amsterdam, he was Infantry."

[plantfood]

"One veteran you didn't know," Mathias murmurs, fascinated by that. There's a part of him that understands trying to pry into Webster's past like this might be seen as rude, so he says nothing more on the topic. But it's still in his mind and he'll still be thinking about it for a long time coming.

"Strange how these arrivals work," he says simply.