Relief by Sin-Vraal on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

There's a moment.

At first the line is a hazy one, obscured by the passage of years and accumulated uncertainties. But slowly those burn away, and the moment sharpens into a distinct clarity- contained by four walls and dense armor plating but no less sharp than a thunderclap.

It's not not just after the mission ends but long after the lag of time when, exhausted by the battle, they both still have to be officers, making sure everyone's needs are met. Maybe it's the gaggle of refugees they picked up safely fed and housed. Or a wounded comrade seen to the med bay. Or an ungainly bulk of new cargo, a piece of technology that could make the Crucible a little stronger... so long as it doesn't start whispering indoctrination songs in the dark hours between shifts.

It's being seen. Charting the next course, making a show of always moving forward, helmet in hand, armor still gritty with the dust of some bombed-out ruin. It's keeping the mask in place long enough to keep everyone convinced we're going to win this impossible war. It's making sure that any time one of your crew looks up, you're there.

Leaders are the first out of bed and the last into it.

That moment... is the deep dark of the night when two plain exhausted humans crawl out from under their burdens and sink into each other, revel in the relief that another day has passed and they both came back, and a brutal, violent death that seems inevitable is stymied just a little longer.

Just for a few minutes, a few hours, there's nothing else in the world but each other.

-------------

I'm getting tired of the phenomenon where I'm working on something I have an abnormally high emotional attachment to, so as a result the expectations I have for my own work are so wildly out of proportion that I can't be honestly happy or objective about the result.

Contrast that to working on something where I have much less bound up in it, so I'm perfectly okay with the attempt even if it doesn't blow anything away.

Anyway. Regardless, this was an interesting exercise just for having approached it in a very different way than usual.

ETA: Re-upped to fix an issue with the black levels.