kingdom of dirt

[raskolnikovi]

[indecorus]

More than most people care to “give” to get there.

Some things:

You’ll have to go to a service academy - While there are rare generals who went through OCS (Officer’s Candidate School, how the military recruits college graduates not from the service academies) the overwhelming majority of generals in the Army, Air Force and The Marine Corps went to the service academies. (West Point, Colorado Springs, Annapolis). And the days of low grads getting the high jobs are probably over. You’ll have to be in the top 25% of your class to even start the climb.

You’ll have fill in all of the “correct” boxes - You will have to be assigned to correct bases, at the correct times and meet the correct people. You’ll have to go to places that you don’t want and take assignment which you don’t desire to make it to general. And this will over a period of at least 25 years.

Your performance reviews will have to be excellent or outstanding for nearly the entirety of your career - You will have to be the best officer around (or the most political one) for at least 25 years. No major errors and not many minor ones (at least those which can’t be covered up)

Your family can’t have any major issues on any of the bases or posts to which you are assigned- Wife gets a DUI on base-you’re out. Kid sets fire to the base school- You’re out. Daughter runs away and gets brought by the base/post police too often-You’re out.

You can’t piss off the civilians on base where you are assigned - They can make you or break you. One wrong word from a civilian contractor or a civilian liaison at one of your assignments, the door closes.

You have to be in relatively good health - Bad heart? You’re out? Cancer? Unless it’s easily curable- You’re out. Autoimmune diseases? You’re out. Mental illnesses? Definitely forget it.

The competition after you climb the ladder is fierce - Unless you are exceptionally competent or extremely political (or both) you’ll find that you have been cutoff at the knees by someone far more ruthless and career-oriented than you. Think of Wall Street or Hollywood with fewer positions and for less money.

Back to your family - If you get divorced, it better be when you are low ranking and it better not be messy. Then you’ll have get remarried. (Bachelor or spinster generals aren’t in demand) Which also means that:

You probably can’t be gay - You may get away with being DEEPLY closeted, but openly gay just doesn’t fly. The recent changes in the military were for the lower ranks; they didn’t include the “big brass”

You will probably never make it much through the front door - By that I mean you may make Brigadier (One star) General and that’s it. Higher than that and you’ll have to be a world-beater or know some serious heavyweights at the Pentagon, in Congress or in the defense industry who will go to bat for you.

JON MIXON, “If someone were to join the US military tomorrow, what would it take for them to become a general?”

[sauvageri]

“I had to do it.”

      her lips curl into a vicious snarl. their marriage was loveless   —   her mother had never married   &   perhaps that’s why she had no knowledge of what a happy marriage was like. she’d married him for the sole reason of POWER.   (   she thought often of when they found, how he would look with her knee crushing into his windpipe. she could kill him. as could he. sex was violent, vicious. her neck covered in mottled with the yellow   &   purple marks of their love, of how his fingers so roughly grasped at her thin neck.   )   love had nothing to do with them, strayed far their path. the weight of their parent’s dreams had crushed all hopes of ever loving another.   (   but she caught him, staring too long at the knight who dipped his head   &   pressed pink tongue to his boot. she didn’t even need to be force sensitive to know when he gripped her hips   &   slammed her face into the pillows that he thought of him.   )

                ❛   then i have no reason to carry this child, darling.   ❜

     she knows, in some sick way that he’ll grab her, keep her still as if she were a child throwing a tantrum. but she is cool headed even as her pale face flushes with an unbridled rage, burning in her cheeks like a wildfire. fists clench from under her own leather gloves, turning from him. she will   SEEK   the medical droids out if she must, will   FORCE   them to pry this child from her womb. if this is how he wished to play   —   HE DOES NOT OWN ME. MY MOTHER DID NOT RAISE ME TO KNEEL BEFORE HIM LIKE THAT DISGUSTING KNIGHT.   —   she, too, would play this game.   &   when he spat out his hatred of her, for how she   KILLED   their child, she would smile, vicious, wicked, deviant   &   reply.

                ❛   i had to do it.   ❜

[indecorus]

headcanon #1

Edeer really hates confined spaces, but not as in “elevators that get stuck” or anything along those lines kind of places, but more like space ships in general. Whenever he’s inside one he feels trapped, and the infinity of the whole space seems to asfixiate him, as if there was one only gravitational center on the whole universe attracting all things, and they were it. He absolutely detests space and it’s such a big part of everyone’s life now that there’s no way he can eternally avoid it. Intergalactic travelling is a must do at some point in no matter what job that’s worth doing, and the first few times that he had to get in one he had awfully strong panic attacks. Eventually he learned to deal with them, but he gets extremelly tense during the quiet trips. If there was any turbulence or problem however, that control would break instantly.

[steverigers]

you died screaming, yet the monster who took your place was silent.

you are a weapon, and weapons do not weep | h.a

[hisparliament]

[indecorus]

character study #3

Due to the pressure he’s always been put under, he’s developed a serious problem of work addiction. This leads him to often starve himself for days when there’s something to be finished that he considers more important than his own comfort or health. Not only that but if he happened to catch a fever he would dismiss the symptoms and malaise unless it started clouding his thoughts and became too unbearable.

He was forced to study very hard from a young age, and eventually grew to love the stories he read about the Imperial heroes. Instead of actively want to take the lead role of those adventures, the desire of writing them arose. He was quickly discouraged by his father, whom after learning about his intentions stabbed his right hand ( Bellow the ring finger and little finger. No nerves influencing his ability to shoot and manipulate weapons were severely damaged ) . The moral being words can’t protect one from being hurt, and he would live times of war. ( He already did ) . He was meant to do something else on that universe, something much bigger.

As a fact, during his time working for the Academy, Hux’s father created a secret organization of hand-picked students, on which the final test to be accepted was to kill another student. It is my belief that he made his own son go through those trials as well. The same indications were given to one of his closest friends at the time, being back-stabbed and leaving him with a wound on his left shoulder blade. Hux’s preferred victim would have been someone else instead, but the experience made him tougher and forced him to get detached from any relationship previously formed.

Those are the only two scars he’s ever gotten, as he’s never properly stepped into a battlefield nor does he plan on doing it any time soon as long as he can avoid it.

Despite the abuses suffered from his father, Hux holds a deep and profound respect towards the man. He feels no resentment whatsoever, and does in fact believe that every single one of his actions was justified. One of his main personal goals is to make him proud of what he’s become and has achieved.

He does not believe in cruelty for the sake of it. A firm hand to control everyone is absolutely needed yet no gratuitous damage would be of his liking if he ever managed to rule the galaxy as he thinks he’s meant to. Public executions and fear spread among to those resistants left, but nothing else. Violence is a necessary evil in order to achieve peace.

Hux enjoys kids a great deal. He likes their curiosity and innocence not yet corrupted by one side or the other, their desire to question everything they see around them, or their ability not to care at all. However, he would never doubt on eliminating one if any mission or the circumstance itself required it, nor he would regret manipulating them to his own advantage.

[sprightlysylph-blog]

Anger was better than tears, better than grief, better than guilt.

Princess Arianne Martell

[indecorus]

character study #2

Weakness is the first word that comes to mind when he thinks about the light. Not in force sensitive people, that he knows, no matter which side they’re on each manages to find its strength ( Underestimating them would be a grave error that he does not dare to commit even if there are always ways to win ) . Yet among anyone else there is no such thing as power from the sickening warmth of those feelings. He believes in saving the universe and its beings through violence and fear, death its innevitalble consequence until establishing the only possible government suited for their chaotic galaxy, ( Genuine frustration with every resistance move against his troops, how can they not see what he’s doing, understand where he stands, follow as the rest of people ) .

Burning rage running through his veins, the longing for the recognition he’ll never get. An unstoppable greed, power hunger, the pride on he wears as an armor. It helps the general detach himself from the feelings he despises, the feelings that make people flinch before they strike, the feelings that lead to morals and lost battles ( Burried deep and long forbiden, but he is still human, and it’s sometimes not enough to keep them locked down ) .

Happiness is equaliy poisonous, a clear target for the enemy to aim at, one more flaw on his system to cover ( Thus he doesn’t allow himself to it. he doesn’t let it ruin the darkness he’s always known and lived on, strict even when his own shrunken heart is the only thing left for him to rule ) . He is lost, the moment their game becomes something else. They are sharp edges that cut to the touch, willing humiliations and self-inflicted suffering. They are nightmares and a bitter aftertaste with each kiss, and the first time the damned three words escape Kylo’s lips he can do nothing but make him regret ever letting them slip. ( He’s not in love. Kylo needs him in order to stay on the right path, the general needs the feeling of complete domination over something. It’s a sick codependence they can’t escape, but he refuses to call it being in love. Only that he is, and it feels like drowning ) .

[indecorus]

character study #1

He is eight, and he wonders ( Not for the first time ) why he’s not allowed with the rest of children outside. All he wants is to join them and play, emulate his heroes, defeat monsters and save princesses, fly spaceships, rule the entire universe ( All those fantasies that are still harmless while the innocence remains ) .  And so he stares out the window on his room, and longing sighs escape his lips before his eyes turn back to his book.

He is twelve, everything’s still the same. While the rest of children are playing, he’s learning how to shoot ( Only he no longer asks why, he no longer stares ) . Sore shoulder and frustrated growls, he practices until it gets too dark, and the targets are far enough not to be seen and aimed at. It’s tiring, hard, sometimes he still feels like giving up would be much easier ( But he’s scared to say it out loud, he’s not good enough, and it hurts when the punishments come ) .

He is nineteen, and no one remembers the last time he’s genuinely smiled. He’s only known times of war, and the Republic’s views slowly forced upon them after their battles makes him burn with hatred and disgust ( They are all wrong, and someone had to show them ) .  With age the understanding of his purpose arrived, expectations falling on his shoulders through his whole scholarship ( He doesn’t let anyone see his fear, he doesn’t let them get close. He is better than that, he will use and destroy them all if they try ) .

[wookiees]