#hope that writing snippet isnt absolute trash😭

[thelonelytoris]

Last Days of War (2025) prompt 1) Celebration/Dog Tags/Memorial

@lastdaysofwar

With the War clock now permanently reading 0, it's expected that people would be celebrating.

As the energy of the crowd ebbs and flows, Raleigh is given the perfect opportunity to slip away from being one of the few surviving heroes of the night.

Left to himself in the last secluded corner of the Hong Kong Shatterdome cafeteria, Raleigh thumbed over the worn metal held in his hand.

Looking down at the faded text engraved into the steel, Raleigh knew reading the words that he had long memorized wouldn't bring him any closer to the closure he had been seeking out for years.

Most others in the Shatterdome, while recognizing what the metal disk could've been, wouldn't have been able to easily read what the engravings wrote:

BECKET Y

Y-BEC_122.21 B

1995

PPDC

Yancy's dog tags. One of the few belongs of his brother's that he had brought with him to The Wall, and subsequently, Hong Kong.

Even with a victory as great as closing the Breach that had been tormenting humanity, Raleigh wasn't quite ready to be celebrating. Instead, leaving his mind to wonder to those that they lost.

Maybe with the time that humanity had gained, he could finally allow himself to heal from the numerous losses no 26-year-old should have to go through.

He'd learn to live. To celebrate.

For the Wei Tang brothers.

For Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky.

For Pentecost.

For Chuck.

For Yancy.

It would just take time.