( don't mind him, he had to look that word up. so this response is somewhat delayed due to how long he spends puzzlin' over words.
his expression's soft, though, pensive when he replies, )
You don't have anything to apologize for.
( he knew enough german that he translated sometimes. they were obligated to treat prisoners well — though, gavin didn't want them keepin' any to begin with. paratroopers moved light, stayed light. they couldn't take wards. couldn't leave 'em behind to be recouped by the enemy. malmedy was a fucking nightmare, but gene has often wondered if it was retaliation for all the conventions they broke.
but he saw ghosts aplenty. german boys. young ones, too — some barely fourteen if they were a day. frightened, lost, callin' out for their folks as any newly dead might. how many trinkets did he take off bodies? how many things did he mail back to families, hopin' to ease their grief? he didn't care about sides. never hated the germans the way albert did the japanese. they were just folk. tryin' to live. wantin' to. the dead kept comin' an' he used to sit awake long nights talkin' to the ones that came to him. bright as a beacon, reg' said. an' all of 'em had the loneliness to 'em only death can bring.
been three years an' some change since the surrender, but the people still carry a lot. hell, ilse brought a pie over when he returned, an' apologized. this little ol' lady who'd looked after him all his life, feelin' like she had to grovel for heritage that weren't her fault, an' that was after losin' her boys in the great war. that'd gutted him, near as bad as anythin' else he saw. he ain't ever even met this gal face to face an' he hurts for her, too. )
I may not have liked why I was in Germany, but I never quarreled with the common folk. It was a beautiful country, and people were kinder than we deserved.
( some of that kindness was fear. the red army wasn't the only one that left devastation in its wake, retaliation for the hard years of war. but a lot, he knows, was just relief at the whole damn thing being done.)
[ steve had heard her accent and pegged her as german right away, it's a distinctive enough accent, but they had met somewhat on gaby's terms. she had known who he was (daisy's captain america) before he had known who she was. gaby had wanted to control these terms as well, as best as she could in the relative instability of this world. ]
I was seven when the war ended.
[ the european theater, at least; gaby had been fairly preoccupied by learned to do up her buttons and lace her boots to care much about what was going on in the pacific. her father has fled to america not long after mussolini and hitler died, just after germany surrendered. she had priorities even then. ]
The Americans gave all the children in Berlin chocolate.
( it's tellin', that it's what she chooses to focus on. lord, he can't imagine the horror of an occupyin' force rollin' down your city streets an' you not knowin' the why of it. the war touched too many lives.
not all the americans would'a been handin' out chocolate. war made monsters of more than just their enemies. )
Hopefully you got one of the good Hershey bars, and not those damn bricks of cocoa they tried to pawn off on the rest of us in our rations.
[ went home to her frau schmidt with chocolate all over her face and fingers, a little chocolate gremlin high on sugar when she had been without it for, frankly, most of her life. sugar should have been a luxury afforded to udo teller's only child but her father had done his best to distance his work from his beloved daughter and that meant keeping the luxuries to a minimum.
it had protected her and the schmidts when the war ended and gaby supposes she should be grateful to him. she has not evolved past her anger yet. ]
What passes for chocolate here may well remind you of your ration chocolate. It is called carob and it tastes like cardboard chalk.
( he is faintly curious now, if speakin' in one's native tongue would or would not carry the accent over in someone else's head when the translation kicks in. he ought to try carryin' on at somebody in french or welsh one of these days an' just see if the alabama sticks strong. )
That's reasonable.
I'm sorry for the hassle in seeking me out to that end and for the undue stress it may have been upon you.
( seven years old. she likely has no memory of a time without war, an' given how things've been in germany afterwards... he ain't sure he can hold to hope that things've gone all right afterwards, neither. )
I was lucky to escape my country and I have no intention of returning.
[ not while the wall continues to bisect her city. it rankles, daily, that she had waited and bid her time to escape from behind the iron curtain only to be discarded into a city enclosed by another wall. ]
Well, it was mostly an accident. I was trying to find a place to go dancing, and one thing lead to another. Turns out there's still folk in this time that'd like to learn the Charleston, so now I'm teaching.
Yes ma'am. Not so much as I used to, bum leg and all, but I never missed a chance in the war. Duke Ellington comes on and I just couldn't help myself, seemed like.
Do you still keep up on it by chance? I'd love to learn. I knew a dame who worked as a nurse, she'd been in a ballet troupe before the war and left to take up the cause. Never seen anybody more graceful.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
@gaby.teller
Date: 2019-12-31 05:19 am (UTC)I apologize for being prevaricating.
[ but YOU KNOW. ]
@eugene.hicks (cw for non-whitewashed american war history oop)
Date: 2019-12-31 05:48 am (UTC)his expression's soft, though, pensive when he replies, )
You don't have anything to apologize for.
( he knew enough german that he translated sometimes. they were obligated to treat prisoners well — though, gavin didn't want them keepin' any to begin with. paratroopers moved light, stayed light. they couldn't take wards. couldn't leave 'em behind to be recouped by the enemy. malmedy was a fucking nightmare, but gene has often wondered if it was retaliation for all the conventions they broke.
but he saw ghosts aplenty. german boys. young ones, too — some barely fourteen if they were a day. frightened, lost, callin' out for their folks as any newly dead might. how many trinkets did he take off bodies? how many things did he mail back to families, hopin' to ease their grief? he didn't care about sides. never hated the germans the way albert did the japanese. they were just folk. tryin' to live. wantin' to. the dead kept comin' an' he used to sit awake long nights talkin' to the ones that came to him. bright as a beacon, reg' said. an' all of 'em had the loneliness to 'em only death can bring.
been three years an' some change since the surrender, but the people still carry a lot. hell, ilse brought a pie over when he returned, an' apologized. this little ol' lady who'd looked after him all his life, feelin' like she had to grovel for heritage that weren't her fault, an' that was after losin' her boys in the great war. that'd gutted him, near as bad as anythin' else he saw. he ain't ever even met this gal face to face an' he hurts for her, too. )
I may not have liked why I was in Germany, but I never quarreled with the common folk. It was a beautiful country, and people were kinder than we deserved.
( some of that kindness was fear. the red army wasn't the only one that left devastation in its wake, retaliation for the hard years of war. but a lot, he knows, was just relief at the whole damn thing being done. )
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 06:11 am (UTC)I was seven when the war ended.
[ the european theater, at least; gaby had been fairly preoccupied by learned to do up her buttons and lace her boots to care much about what was going on in the pacific. her father has fled to america not long after mussolini and hitler died, just after germany surrendered. she had priorities even then. ]
The Americans gave all the children in Berlin chocolate.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 06:20 am (UTC)( it's tellin', that it's what she chooses to focus on. lord, he can't imagine the horror of an occupyin' force rollin' down your city streets an' you not knowin' the why of it. the war touched too many lives.
not all the americans would'a been handin' out chocolate. war made monsters of more than just their enemies. )
Hopefully you got one of the good Hershey bars, and not those damn bricks of cocoa they tried to pawn off on the rest of us in our rations.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 06:39 am (UTC)[ went home to her frau schmidt with chocolate all over her face and fingers, a little chocolate gremlin high on sugar when she had been without it for, frankly, most of her life. sugar should have been a luxury afforded to udo teller's only child but her father had done his best to distance his work from his beloved daughter and that meant keeping the luxuries to a minimum.
it had protected her and the schmidts when the war ended and gaby supposes she should be grateful to him. she has not evolved past her anger yet. ]
What passes for chocolate here may well remind you of your ration chocolate. It is called carob and it tastes like cardboard chalk.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 07:59 pm (UTC)Well, I'll consider that due warning to keep my distance from it, then.
( there's a brief pause on his end. then, )
What made you decide to tell me?
( he could've reacted badly. he's known plenty of fellas that would've. )
no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 02:13 am (UTC)If you took it poorly I would prefer it had been in private.
[ pragmatism is the name of the game with gabriella teller. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-02 06:54 pm (UTC)That's reasonable.
I'm sorry for the hassle in seeking me out to that end and for the undue stress it may have been upon you.
Whereabouts did you grow up?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-03 01:31 am (UTC)I was born in Berlin. The Soviet sector after the war.
[ gaby is absolutely not going to be the one to tell him about the berlin wall, but berlin was already split up after the war like pieces of a cake. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-09 12:40 am (UTC)Reckon you miss it?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-09 05:02 am (UTC)I was lucky to escape my country and I have no intention of returning.
[ not while the wall continues to bisect her city. it rankles, daily, that she had waited and bid her time to escape from behind the iron curtain only to be discarded into a city enclosed by another wall. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-10 03:30 am (UTC)Well, for what it's worth then I'm glad to have you here and I hope you can find some manner of happiness in this place.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-10 04:26 am (UTC)I appreciate that. Hopefully you find yourself settled quickly.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-14 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-15 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-18 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-18 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-18 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-18 04:44 am (UTC)[ not something she would normally advertise, very few people are aware. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-18 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-18 05:24 am (UTC)