Look I KNOW it's a very serious thing and I KNOW it's one of the last stages before literal death from hypothermia but I wonder if the Terror fandom and others related have fully embraced the wonderful narrative possibilities of Paradoxical Undressing?
Picture a Cold Boy of your choice - a lieutenant perhaps?
Maybe he's just returned from a gruelling leads party, maybe he's met with some more specific mishap, maybe he was just out doing regular lieutenant things and didn't realise how much the mercury was dropping.
Point is, he's suddenly freezing, he's shaking like a very handsome leaf, breath coming in ragged hitches and gasps, tearing off his own clothes in his delirium. Too confused and too disoriented now to do anything to help himself, he's half-naked and vulnerable and alone in some random part of the ship.
Until someone finds him...
Picture another Cold Boy of your choice - personally, I'm thinking someone subordinate to our shivering, scantily-clad Whumpee.
Picture Cold Boy B scrambling around for something with which to cover Whumpee's stark and indecorous nakedness, taking the poor man in his arms, rubbing at his exposed flesh to warm it. Trying to comfort him in his delirium, explaining - as one might to a frightened child - what is happening to him and why.
Perhaps picture a steamy scene a la The North Water, more men drafted in to manhandle the utterly helpless Whumpee, lathering him up with fat, his skin glistening with it as he, half-conscious, chokes down a mouthful of whisky or some such.
Not only do we have the delicious thought of that physical process of hurt and comfort, but also the fall-out afterwards.
How can you look your superior officer in the eye again when you've seen him in that state? Naked, delirious, frightened, stripped of every bit of autonomy and control of his own body? Profoundly vulnerable and oh so exposed?
