Things are working out a bit slowly as far as RLW and Winter Sky are going, but I'm going to update anyway with a bit of a thing involving Frost I wasn't sure how to work into the story.
Plus, things got even harder in life than they already were, and I've almost hit the bottom as far as my depression's going. Nothing's improving, and I don't see the suffering ending anytime soon. Not going to let that screw up my writing, though.
Yeah, Frosty's backstory. I should probably make one for Ramirez sometime, but it might be difficult. I imagine Ramirez as a pretty normal everyday American without much of a tragic story. Frost on the other hand doesn't have it very well.
If you paid close attention, I mentioned once through Derek's inner thoughts that he had a sister, and something happened to her. Hella vague, I know.
By the way, no one in the story actually knows about any of this yet, at least as far as pre-military life went. So the other characters won't be referencing this at all save Frost himself. I am thinking that sooner or later he will reveal it to someone close to him, though.
So I guess as a last resort to tell you guys I'm not dead, I'm putting this out as filler. I feel bad because filler sucks ass.
Warning to those who are uncomfortable with things such as sexual assault and child abuse, be warned.
We'll get back to the plot soon! I promise!
Sergeant Derek "Frost" Westbrook wasn't very much known for being open about his past. In fact, no one knew much about what kind of person he was before the Army, save some spotty records here or there.
It was like that for a reason. He refused to tell anyone, even those closest to him. The past would be better off erased, at least his own.
As a kid, little Derek didn't have a single friend, much less a childhood. He did have an abusive Pops he refused to call a father, and a younger sister who was the one thing he could hold onto. He never met his mother once, and it was probably because she was dead or got away before Pops could do anything about it.
He wasn't even sure if his real name was Westbrook. He resented the title, it being from his father in the first place. It was the only semblance of an identity he could really have, though.
More often than not, Pops would barge into the apartment in a fit of drunken stupor and hit whatever he could get his hands on. In the rare event Derek or his sister Mia got their hands on any kind of toy, it lasted maybe a few hours tops before being destroyed.
And of course, he'd hit his kids too. He didn't bother with which kid, just whichever entered his sight first. His weapon of choice was an old Louisville Slugger, which appeared one day after Derek arrived home from school sometime around 4th grade.
He would never forget the sensation of blunt force rippling through his head after a sloppy swing. Had Pops put full force into it, he'd be dead.
The verbal abuse he got was equally as damaging. Derek honestly came to believe he was worthless. He didn't want his sister to experience any of it, so he always made sure to take the hits for her. He sacrificed himself so that she wouldn't have to go through what he did.
At one point in middle school, he met a bunch of asshole kids, all headed down the road to prison. But for some strange reason, he fit in. So he stuck with them. Why not, there wasn't much left for him anyway. It didn't last long, but for the first time, he was accepted into some kind of community.
Once Derek was about seventeen, he decided he'd had enough. He took sixteen-year-old Mia's hand, ran, and never looked back. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, driven more by desperation than anything else.
The two found themselves homeless. But it wasn't nearly as bad as the daily abuse they were enduring.
They both pledged that they would never turn to crime to get what they needed, no matter what. Robbery, burglary, prostitution, assault and battery, murder – none of it, even if they were down to the last penny.
Instead, they used their heads. Frost picked up a menial job at a gun store, employed by some old WWII vet by the name of Bill Taylor who didn't give a damn that hiring a 17-year-old was probably illegal. It worked reasonably well. As for a place to live, there was a conveniently abandoned flat they occupied.
Just because Derek and his sister didn't participate in crime, didn't mean other people didn't.
A fateful night, while walking home, the siblings were ambushed and outnumbered by a good amount of older men. Now, Derek always defended his sister no matter what, but he was always a bad fighter. He had no choice here but to deal with it, especially because some of the guys were armed.
He felt a gun pressed against the back of his head as he was forced to watch them drag her into a back alley and… have their way with her. He couldn't do a single thing as he watched the motherfucker assert his domination, her pained screams as she was shamefully deflowered.
That was the last time he ever saw her. The men took her off, probably to sell her into the sex slavery industry. And the boy was left behind to die, having been stripped of all the possessions he had left.
He reported this at school first thing, but he went to the most ghetto school in the entire United States. They didn't care at all, nor could they help, anyway.
At first, Derek vowed revenge. He started to practice his shooting, honing his skills every opportunity he got at his workplace. The old man Bill had some pointers for him, too. Sometimes he'd ramble about how when he was Derek's age, he was storming Pointe Du Hoc at Normandy with the Rangers. He allowed the 17-year-old to work at his store, and fire the weapons, but he drew the line at actually giving him a weapon. On top of that, Derek came to realize that he wouldn't be able to find the exact assholes who took his sister, nor take them all on.
That's when the boy entered into a constant search for love. The only love he ever got was from Mia, and he craved it so badly. With her gone, no one in the entire world would care for him anymore. He needed someone to protect, someone who could be his and no one else's. He must have picked up the mentality of being a domineering person from Pops. But he swore to himself that he would never be nearly as abusive as he was.
It was useless. He wasn't anyone special at all.
Of course, he didn't have any idea what to do anymore. That is, until a special table was set up on campus…
Two men, obviously not desiring to be there, were sitting at that table. They donned uniforms anyone could recognize, even someone like Derek. They were from the United States Army, and were part of a recruiting campaign there. After some big event in 2011, enlistment levels were at an all-time low.
Derek already knew what his destiny would be from that moment. As soon as all of it was over, he enlisted in the Army as a last-ditch attempt to take his life back. He shot for special operations, having been told that the regulations were being slightly relaxed.
What was the point of being a regular grunt? Westbrook didn't want to be just another pawn thrown at an enemy. No. he wanted to be useful for once in his entire life. The grand stories of Bill's time in the Army just might have rubbed off on him.
Applying for Delta Force was a long, difficult road. But Westbrook picked up a sense of determination after all these years, and he refused to quit. He became the best marksman in his class, having found a talent for it after so much practice. Something about shooting made him continue to do it until he was almost-perfect. If he couldn't do that well in the other departments, marksmanship would be the one.
He failed.
He never learned any of this knowledge, however. The brass decided that after seeing how hard this kid worked, he might be worth investing in. These days, many generals were much more lax on holding regulations. Many joined to further their agendas.
So it was kept under wraps, and the youngest member to ever join 1st SFOD-Delta was assigned to a team.
He wasn't immediately trusting of them. He didn't trust anyone. He always kept a demeanor of being cold, and he was immediately dubbed "Frost." This was furthered by his teammates unearthing his ancient Facebook page and discovering his pictures from eighth grade.
Frost's boss, Sandman, was a force to be reckoned with. A professional veteran with more than a decade of work under his belt, any missions Team Metal performed under Sandman's leadership never failed.
Truck was a friendly guy, always having an air of politeness surrounding him. He was a gentleman who refused to have any contempt for even the men he fought. At the same time, he was deadly and destructive, racking up a massive killcount.
Grinch came across as kind of a douche. Frost quickly learned that it wasn't what he was really like, and that he always had good intentions. He was the designated marksman, managing to outshoot Frost in the DMR department. Grinch warmed up to Frost quickly, "melting" his attitude and making a close friend.
Doc was always there for him. Their medic didn't always go out on missions, but when he did, he proved himself to be a valuable asset, being quite a decent shooter on his own. And rumor had it that every team he was assigned to, not a single operator died while under his care.
Frost found that these were the guys he could trust, the only people he believed in. Around them, he wasn't the stoic kid everyone else saw. He was one of them.
But the job also revealed his darker side, one that didn't really have a chance to show until then.
Frost realized that he was quite sadistic.
He took joy in interrogating his prisoners, reveling in the pain he caused them as he squeezed every last drop of information, willpower, and hope out of them.
After all, he was always on the other end, being dealt suffering, power being exerted over him. He finally had control, and it felt giddy just to make another suffer.
But no matter what, he stayed true to what he believed in. No matter what, he refused to harm any female prisoners any more than he did male captives. Each time he found himself tempted to forcefully ravish anyone, the haunting face of his sister forced itself into his mind, as she was dragged off by people who did such a thing to her.
And it pissed him off to no end when he saw anyone doing that. He set off on a crusade to stop sexual abuse towards captives, whether they be male or female. Even a man like him knew where to draw the line.
Every night, he always agonized over himself. He wasn't sure if he was a good person at all. He hated himself for the fact that he enjoyed the torture of others. He didn't like the fact that taking the lives of the enemy did not elicit any feelings. He was disgusted by the thought that maybe, maybe he wasn't any better than Pops.
When World War III broke out, he fought even harder. This was his home. No matter what happened, other people could attach good memories to the country that neglected him. He fought on behalf of the civilians who loved their country but couldn't do a thing about the Russians everywhere.
Team Metal spent most of the invasion hunting down terrorists who slipped into the borders under the umbrella of the Ultranationalist invasion, all after the Rangers discovered a terrorist who participated in the airport attacks which started it all.
He didn't know it at the time. Frost's Little Bird brought over a Ranger medic (who was a pretty big deal, being the only girl in SOF) to meet up with the Rangers who discovered the bodies in the first place.
But something about her made him interested to learn more. He knew that her name was Moore, not really much else about her identity. When they went in to pick her up, the radio transmissions implied that she took control of an abandoned evacuation post all by herself, evacuating dozens of civilians who would have been relentlessly gunned down by the Russians.
A notorious soldier was gaining attention in the Russian military. Nobody knew much about her. Intelligence was starting to think she might have been a terrorist infiltrator.
Of course, after capturing and torturing her, they all learned she wasn't. Just some random soldier who wasn't particularly lucky, by the name of Natalia Petrova.
Sandman requested for her release, and permission was granted.
But the night before it happened, Frost couldn't sleep. A feeling in his gut told him that something was very, very wrong.
He didn't trust anyone. But the MPs around were especially suspicious. The female MPs constantly avoided the men, for example. Prisoners were constantly being found beaten, even though none of the SOF interrogators did that.
So Frost took Sandman and checked on this POW, Natalia. And they found three MPs, one about to strip her of what was probably the only innocent part left of her left untouched by the horrors of war.
Rage consumed the usually chill operator, and the three were punished for what they did. He managed to control himself from killing them on the spot. After all, they were American.
Frost couldn't help but see Mia in this Natalia person. She was drafted and didn't intend on any of this happening in the first place. Once again, he felt like this was a girl he had to protect. And the more she spoke of herself, the more he felt like he wanted her. Of course, he made sure not to indicate this. Relationships with captives, of course, wouldn't be any good.
It seemed as if she begged for his care. She obviously didn't like the army she was fighting for. She managed to open up to him, despite being a very resistant prisoner. She opened up, even without taking advantage of her weakness for water torture.
A very unusual feeling was bothering Frost.
He didn't want to hurt Natalia. Unlike the rest of the prisoners he ever had control of, she made him feel different.
If only she weren't the enemy. Frost sucked it up and told himself some things just weren't meant to be.
There wasn't much time for this, though, as he moved to DC for another snatch-and-grab mission, leaving Natalia and the prisoners behind. Doc came along for the ride for once.
When the team hit the building, Frost took point. It was a standard plan, but it always worked. He was the best shot at close range, and always paved the way for the team behind him. This time, Doc was the guy next in line.
But when he moved up the stairs, he made a tiny blunder, one that proved catastrophic. He smacked his toe against a step, tripping and failing to take out a guy who appeared at the top.
Grinch double-tapped the tango, but not before two lucky 7.62s managed to find a resting spot in Doc's skull.
This alerted the rest of the men in the building, and it became a mad race to catch their guy. Not even a mid-operation EMP that fried their electronics and disabled their comms slowed the op one second.
They pulled it off, but not without having to shoot their way out and drive away in the only fucking running vehicle in the area.
There was no recovering Doc's body, at least not until after the battle and the subsequent cleanup.
Frost felt as if he betrayed everyone. He trusted them with his own life, with everything. But with this, he didn't think they could trust him.
Of course, a replacement arrived soon. But it wasn't any random guy plucked from the ranks of another SOF. It was a random girl plucked from the ranks of another SOF, except that she wasn't quite random, being the only woman in question in spec ops.
Only then did Frost get to meet her. Jenna Moore, dubbed "Hook" because of some evidence that implied she did… things before showing up.
She acted strange around him. To Frost, trusting anyone on first sight was alien. Yet she clung to him instantly, placing her entire life in his hands.
Not only that, but when he was in any kind of danger, she was always there to help. Frost reasoned that it might have been just the caring factor, that she was a good medic, but she went above and beyond the call of duty for him.
He wasn't sure why, but he cared for her back really quickly, too. She blindly invested all of her trust in him, and he somehow returned this sentiment.
Hook acted really funny the night after the New York op once she got drunk. (Very quickly, that is.) Frost was unsure of how he felt about her, but he reluctantly decided that the two should keep a professional relationship for the time being. Sure, she was cute and definitely liked him in some form, but at this point he didn't have time for it. He wasn't the immature high-schooler who failed at least nineteen times with girls.
When she was taken captive by the terrorists, he wasn't sure why he was so angry. It was probably the fact that it was exactly what happened to his own sister. His fears proved true when the team breached and found her about to be fucked by some Russian thug.
A double tap wasn't enough to express how Frost wanted to react. An entire mag was barely enough. It was a repeat of the entire Petrova incident, but in this case, the enemy was doing it.
He made it his goal to teach Hook how to be a good shooter. Her first mission was a hot mess, and she needed to know how to do more than just defend herself as a medic. She was an excellent CQB fighter, but fistfights seldom occur in combat.
Sometime later, a general who was part of the political faction aligned against women in combat arms showed up. Politics plagued the higher ranks all the time. This man was General Chandler Bradford, known for being quite the chauvinist. He suppressed the voice of enlisted women who tried to earn a place in the military as shooters. In fact, he pulled some strings to make sure a woman trying for the SEALs failed. Same with many attempting to be infantry officers. Yet among the men, he held a charm for being a caring general towards them. Mostly everyone was blinded by that.
On the other hand was the woman who campaigned for Hook's place in the Rangers, Helen Stelara. She resented the entire male gender for the actions of the men who slowed her rise in rank and the integration of women into special operations. In contrast to Bradford's misogyny, she was a misandrist. She ruined the lives of plenty of innocent male soldiers, having them charged for sexual assault and such on her personal pawns. And any time a mixed unit was under her command, she made sure to send the male soldiers to die first.
Yet neither got in the way of Jenna's fight to improve herself. Not even when she disguised herself as the replacement Bradford brought in and performed to the best of her ability, on a mission to rescue the fucking vice president.
And Frost didn't know how to feel when she confessed her feelings for him. It was just another strange event in his topsy-turvy world. He was starting to become close with her. And he couldn't stand McCoy's attempts to advance on her.
Then things became even worse. Someone from the Rangers, probably her friend or something, showed up to visit at a bad time. One thing led to another, and what he discovered really wasn't what it seemed like.
Frost realized that this guy was probably way more suited for her than he was. He encouraged Hook to go and chase him when he turned and left.
But the moment she left the tent, he started to regret letting go of Jenna.
And at the same time, in the back of his mind, Natalia still bugged him.
He couldn't make up his mind on what he really wanted.
He always dedicated himself to the job, but all of the drama was getting in the way. Nothing could ever go right for him, he guessed.
Nothing changed it. In the end, Derek "Frost" Westbrook still had a war to fight.
Kinda feelsy, I know. Or not, and I've failed as a writer. Oopsy.
Getting this out of the way, some guest asked me to make a fic for the flash game Sift Heads.
No can do, buddy. I was never much of a fan of that series, to be honest. As a kid, I did like those classic stick figure sniper games, though. Clear Vision and Sniper Assassin, so much fun.
I'll admit, writing this made me feel kind of strange.
"Bill" is Bill Taylor, the American player character from CoD2, because you guys know I love these references.
I haven't mentioned specifically where Frost grew up, and I'm thinking of leaving that ambiguous for the reader to interpret. As I did with Jenna, Ramirez, Natalia, Koslov, Peter, and most of the cast.
I'm hoping I explained better some of the reasons why such unrealistic recruits are being taken into SOF in this fic. We've already established that Jenna is only a Ranger due to being used as a political pawn. Frost is somewhat along those same lines.
Right, I didn't do a good job of getting this across, especially because of Frost's nature of keeping to himself and the fact that he's not the main character. But he does have feelings for Natalia in some form, but he's not even sure of it. It's actually a pairing that I've already decided to build.
I've noticed I have a slight pattern when it comes to her. Characters seeing parts of her resemble people close to themselves. Jenna saw "the innocence in her eyes" she previously remembered Brooke to have. Now Frost sees his sister Mia.
I'm rambling a lot in these A/Ns, stop me please.
Remember, if you want to see a pairing in RLW, vote on my profile for it. If it's not up, chances are I think it's too weird to even consider. Hell, a good amount of those are crack!
5TORM out, guys.