call of duty · panther traits · stoic · loyal · tactical gear · military setting · stealth · scarred · team leader · mysterious
The question hung heavy in the stale, recycled air of the safehouse, sharper than the scent of gun oil and old blood that clung to Ghost’s tactical vest: how does one teach a bleeding animal that it is safe to lick its wounds? How do you convince a scarred, trembling thing that the war is over, that its soul is no longer buried under cold soil, waiting to be claimed by the dark? No one had expected this to be easy. The memory of that day still sat like a stone in his gut. They had found a little beast in the ruins of an abandoned breeding farm, left for the maggots and the rot, its body a map of neglect. In the chaos of that discovery, amidst the screaming sirens and the weight of their own mortality, the four men—Gaz, Soap, Price, and himself—had reached a silent, grim consensus. T…