31 Plays in 31 Days, #28 - “Veterans”
Aug. 28th, 2021 08:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11Another instance drafting for prose dialogue as a scene. This is another conversation that could eventually occur in the next installment of my Forever Captain Marvel fan fiction series. It would follow #21 - Lost Cast and #22 - Recon Mom, though coming after Steve and Rishun take on the strike team, when they have a chance to talk afterward.
Rishun is supposed to be a Nisei, a first-generation Japanese-American, and I wanted to capture something of the conflict that many faced in wanting to serve against the fascism, but being betrayed at home by the American government with internment. I’m not sure I quite achieved it, but at least the idea is in this first draft version.
Day #28 – “Veterans”
From Forever Captain
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~
STEVE ROGERS, now retired to the midcentury, living as Grant Carter, 46
RISHUN HAYWARD, his neighbor, formerly an Allied special agent, 34
Schenectady, New York, 1954
~~~
(STEVE and RISHUN carry his sleeping children, toddler ELIZABETH and baby boy JAMIE, back into their nursery, doing their best not to wake them.)
STEVE: I don’t know how to thank you, Rishun. You saved their lives. And mine, too.
RISHUN: I’m just happy I could help.
(Pause.)
RISHUN: How did you know, Grant? That… you could call me in a situation like this one?
STEVE: Something you said, a few years back, when we first moved into the neighborhood. That you’d done some special service during the war. I suspected something like this.
RISHUN: You knew from just that?
STEVE: Well. You didn’t seem to want to say much else about it. I thought that might be the sort of thing you wouldn’t talk much about. And… then there’s the jumpsuit you gave Peggy. Like the one you’re wearing now.
RISHUN: Ah, yes. Of course. I take it… you come from something similar.
STEVE: Something like that. But I’d rather not talk about it.
RISHUN: I can understand that. Was it bad?
STEVE: Sometimes. But it’s more… I want to put it behind me. How about yours?
RISHUN: My team did some important work. I’m proud of what we accomplished, and… it kept my family out of the camps.
STEVE: Oh. Rishun…
RISHUN: I don’t regret it. It was the right thing to do. But there shouldn’t have been camps at all. Not with what we were supposed to be standing against.
STEVE: I’m sorry.
RISHUN: Still… it was some of the best things I’ve ever done.
STEVE: You don’t serve like that unless you have a calling. I know.
RISHUN: Do you ever miss it?
STEVE: No. I don’t regret it either, but… it burned me out. Do you?
RISHUN: There’s a season to everything. I’m glad I had my time in action. But now it’s time for the children. Maybe someday it’ll be time for something else.
STEVE: Well. Thank you for coming out of retirement just this once.
RISHUN: We have to stick together. If we can’t protect our own families… what did we do it all for?
Rishun is supposed to be a Nisei, a first-generation Japanese-American, and I wanted to capture something of the conflict that many faced in wanting to serve against the fascism, but being betrayed at home by the American government with internment. I’m not sure I quite achieved it, but at least the idea is in this first draft version.
Day #28 – “Veterans”
From Forever Captain
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~
STEVE ROGERS, now retired to the midcentury, living as Grant Carter, 46
RISHUN HAYWARD, his neighbor, formerly an Allied special agent, 34
Schenectady, New York, 1954
~~~
(STEVE and RISHUN carry his sleeping children, toddler ELIZABETH and baby boy JAMIE, back into their nursery, doing their best not to wake them.)
STEVE: I don’t know how to thank you, Rishun. You saved their lives. And mine, too.
RISHUN: I’m just happy I could help.
(Pause.)
RISHUN: How did you know, Grant? That… you could call me in a situation like this one?
STEVE: Something you said, a few years back, when we first moved into the neighborhood. That you’d done some special service during the war. I suspected something like this.
RISHUN: You knew from just that?
STEVE: Well. You didn’t seem to want to say much else about it. I thought that might be the sort of thing you wouldn’t talk much about. And… then there’s the jumpsuit you gave Peggy. Like the one you’re wearing now.
RISHUN: Ah, yes. Of course. I take it… you come from something similar.
STEVE: Something like that. But I’d rather not talk about it.
RISHUN: I can understand that. Was it bad?
STEVE: Sometimes. But it’s more… I want to put it behind me. How about yours?
RISHUN: My team did some important work. I’m proud of what we accomplished, and… it kept my family out of the camps.
STEVE: Oh. Rishun…
RISHUN: I don’t regret it. It was the right thing to do. But there shouldn’t have been camps at all. Not with what we were supposed to be standing against.
STEVE: I’m sorry.
RISHUN: Still… it was some of the best things I’ve ever done.
STEVE: You don’t serve like that unless you have a calling. I know.
RISHUN: Do you ever miss it?
STEVE: No. I don’t regret it either, but… it burned me out. Do you?
RISHUN: There’s a season to everything. I’m glad I had my time in action. But now it’s time for the children. Maybe someday it’ll be time for something else.
STEVE: Well. Thank you for coming out of retirement just this once.
RISHUN: We have to stick together. If we can’t protect our own families… what did we do it all for?
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