Battle Tactics - fic

[deird1]

This was written for the “manliness” prompt at still_grrr.

Title: Battle Tactics
Rating: PG
Word Count: 200

Summary: Riley has violence inside.



Battle Tactics

Solution

What is he supposed to do, exactly?

He could talk to a close friend about it.
Just picture it: him and Graham, having a slumber party.
Painting each other’s nails, eating icecream, and watching old movies.
And then he’d tearfully confide:
“My girlfriend doesn’t really love me. She’s only interested in dead people.”
And maybe Graham would hug him, and they’d talk, and cry, and he’d really get in touch with his inner child…

But Riley is a man.

A man’s man.

So he marches into a graveyard, and starts blowing up crypts.
That makes him feel a lot better.


Submersion

It works well, for a while.

Sort of like bailing water out of a boat.
He puts the violence outside, and all of the violence inside his head dies down… for a while.

But punching stuff in snazzy combat gear leads to blowing up stuff,
Which leads to fake plastic stakes so that he can watch them scream before dusting them for real,
Which somehow leads to three in the morning and a girl sucking blood out of his arm.
And there is water, water everywhere.

And one day, he just throws away the bucket, and starts swimming for shore.